Author: Blancer

It was another quiet afternoon at the Apple retail store at The Grove in Los Angeles, CA — or as quiet as an Apple store can be on a busy day — when all of a sudden, a flash mob began singing and dancing the song “Determinate” from the Disney Channel production “Lemonade Mouth” over Easter weekend.

Chris Brochu and Hayley Kiyoko, two of the film’s stars, organized the surprise appearance with about 15 of their friends and captured their entire performance on video. The choreographed song and dance number drew a mix of befuddled and delighted looks from shoppers and ended when three unfortunate Apple employees were inclined to politely escort the mob out of the store.

Continue reading Cast of Disney’s “Lemonade Mouth” starts flash mob at Apple store

Cast of Disney’s “Lemonade Mouth” starts flash mob at Apple store originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When we annointed ZombieSmash as one of our Daily Apps last month, we mentioned that the game was about to receive a major upgrade — which it just did. Adding a second campaign of carnage and smiting, the newly updated software offers an additional 30 levels (or “days”) of gameplay, basically doubling the original game.

On sale now for just $0.99 (iPhone) and $1.99 (iPad) at the iTunes app store, you can crush, explode, squish, and otherwise wreak havoc among the rampaging zombie hordes. In my play-through, I was a little disappointed there weren’t more basic tower defense strategy elements built into the gameplay, but I found it a delightful diversion. (For rather bloody limb-by-limb dismembering values of “delightful”, that is.)

The update provides 25 new Game Center achievements, improved “zombie spawning”, bunny zombies (for an Easter easter egg), an enhanced soundtrack, and more.

Popular smitage game ZombieSmash receives major update originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you like to see the innards of your handset, then you have to check out this latest offering from iFixit. The repair company known for its detailed teardown analyses has released a transparent rear panel for the GSM/AT&T iPhone 4. Unfortunately, the Verizon iPhone 4 has a slightly different shape and these panels will not fit the Verizon model.

The clear panel lets you peer into the logic board and gawk at the large battery that dominates the back of the handset. Functional as well as eye-catching, the see-through backing adds some durability to your handset. It is made of plastic and is less prone to breaking than the original glass panel.

Thanks to iFixit’s step-by-step guide, swapping out the back panel is drop dead easy. You just loosen some screws, slide the old cover off and slide the new one on. The transparent panels are available now for ordering and will set you back $30 plus taxes, shipping and handling. Anyone going to drop three sawbucks and scoop one up?

iFixIt releases transparent iPhone 4 rear panel originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading TweetDeck 2.0 for iPhone: An announcement in a tweet

TweetDeck 2.0 for iPhone: An announcement in a tweet originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nielsen released its early 2011 survey numbers and the results suggest Android popularity is on the rise and iOS is declining in the US. In this latest consumer survey, Android edges out the iPhone as the most desired smartphone platform.

When asking respondents about the next handset they intend to buy, 31.1% said they would purchase an Android device, while 30% said they wanted an iPhone. This is a 5.6 percentage point increase for Android which climbed from 25.5% and a 2.7 percentage point decline for iOS which was previously at 32.7%. This earlier survey was taken between July 2010 to September 2010.

Interestingly enough, this decline in iOS occurred even though Apple expanded its presence in the US by launching the Verizon iPhone. This early result suggests the expansion of the iPhone to another carrier did little to combat the popularity of Android and stem its tidal wave of devices, many of which are 4G and powered by dual-core processors.

So what do you think, are consumers really giving up the polished operating system and robust app store of iOS just for some horsepower? Will there be some buyer’s remorse when the iPhone 5 arrives later this year?

[Via GigaOM]

Nielsen says Android is “most desired” smartphone platform originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Recently, Mike Rose asked me to check out an ongoing discussion over at the Telestream forums to see if I could assist one of the posters. Mike knew that Steve Sande and I were working on testing out a variety of iPad-to-computer screen capture solutions. He thought I might be able to help out Dr. J, host of the “Lighting the Lamp” podcast.

Continue reading How to: Capturing iPad video with audio narration

How to: Capturing iPad video with audio narration originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Users of the popular Evernote app for Mac are going to love the new 2.1 update released today. To start with, the new app has greatly sped up searching your documents. As Evernote mentioned, it’s not uncommon for a user to now have several thousand notes, and the search times with Evernote for Mac were quite slow. Search speeds have been dramatically improved, so you can keep taking notes without worrying about waiting forever for search results.

Next, Evernote now has the ability to share individual notes through Facebook, Twitter, email and any other way you can think of. There’s now a Share button in the menu bar of the Mac app. You just need to select the note you want to share, click the Share button, then select the way you want to share the information.

There’s also a new way to record a meeting and write notes about it at the same time, all archived for posterity in Evernote. To record an audio note, you just click on the microphone icon and start recording by clicking the Record button. When you’re done recording the audio, you can add text or files, then share it with others. The length of recordings depends on whether you’re a free or premium user — free users can do a single audio note with a maximum size of 25 MB, while premium users get 50 MB (about 4 hours) per note.

The update is available from Evernote, or you can select the “Check for Updates” link in the Mac app to receive your update. If you’ve installed the app through the Mac App Store, Evernote assures us that the update will be available “very soon.”

Evernote for Mac 2.1 update boasts social sharing, audio, speed originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Concert shots from a mobile device are enjoyable to take and so much fun to look at when the event is over. Those grainy pictures seem to capture the excitement of the moment and you can’t help but look cool when thrusting your mobile device in the air to snag an impromptu shot. That is unless your mobile device is an iPad2.

Check out the following video spotted by Gizmodo and watch in shocked bemusement at the single person holding up an iPad 2 to take a picture of Kanye West in concert (at 00:24). Looking more like a luncheon tray whose reflective properties could blind the performer on stage, the brave soul holds his or her iPad 2 into the air subjecting it to all sorts of peril. One simple bump and the iPad could go crashing to the floor where it would be trampled by the dancing throng.

Not to mention that waving an iPad 2 in the air is just asking for someone to steal this highly desirable and hard to find device. It also makes you wonder where the person is storing the iPad 2 when they are not taking pictures? In a front pack, back pack or an iPad-sized fanny pack?

Read on for the video and feel free to comment on this highly unusual usage of an iPad 2.

Continue reading iPad as concert camera is kind of crazy

iPad as concert camera is kind of crazy originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Multiple rumors suggest Apple is gearing up to finally launch the white iPhone 4 later this week. While many are weary of these constant rumors, Ticonderoga securities analyst Brian White believes Apple fans and stockholders should be happy the handset may be ready for its long-awaited debut.

According to White “the white iPhone does matter” to Apple’s earning potential in the upcoming quarter. White believes Apple will delay the launch of the iPhone 5 until September and the arrival of the white iPhone 4 will bridge the gap between the launches of the original iPhone 4, the Verizon iPhone 4 and the iPhone 5.

Apple will see an incremental boost in sales as the white model has a certain “mystique” about it that will prompt some buyers to make the jump and scoop up an iPhone 4. The demand for white devices in China is also high and White predicts the blanc version of the iPhone will be especially hot in this Asian country. China is a growing market for Apple devices and White notes that China accounted for 10% of Apple’s total revenue over the past six months.

White model to boost iPhone sales in upcoming quarter originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OK, so this comes straight out of the why would you want to do this category, but thanks to the iSmooth Project folks from iJailbreakNow, installing and running iPad-only apps is now possible for the less tech-savvy on a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.

The process involves using an app called iTelePad2Pod on your Mac to alter the supported devices metadata of your target iPad app. The modified app is then sent to your iPhone or iPod touch using FTP across OpenSSH (which must be installed on your jailbroken device). It’s a fairly straightforward procedure and results in some relatively usable apps. This isn’t the first time an iPad app has been installed on an iPhone, the once iPad-only Netflix app had that pleasure courtesy of some clever hackery.

These apps are designed for the larger display of the iPad and users may encounter a problem when a button or dialog breaches the bounds of the iPhone’s resolution (960×640 for the iPhone 4). If there’s an app that’s only available for the iPad and you haven’t jumped on the tablet bandwagon yet, you now have a relatively user-friendly option. Read on for a video guide.

[via ModMyi]

Continue reading Install and run iPad apps on an iPhone easily with iTelePad2Pod

Install and run iPad apps on an iPhone easily with iTelePad2Pod originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Super Stickman Golf is a golf game, and a pretty good one at that. But it’s not like any golf game you’ve ever played before. For one thing, it’s played in 2D. Like Worms, you line up a shot, hit an energy meter right where you want it to go, then send your ball across a variety of 2D stages. But this is a wacky game of golf — some of the stages have floating islands and other obstacles in them, and some of your shots can either get hit or roll off at weird angles.

Fortunately, you have some help in the form of ball power-ups, so your golf balls can stick to the walls, freeze in midair or otherwise careen around the stages. It’s a lot of fun; it’s still golf, but it’s more of a wacky arcade sport than the “good walk ruined.”

The presentation is great, with solid controls and good music to back up the proceedings. There’s an amazing amount of content, with six clubs, over 250 holes to play, multiplayer and Game Center leaderboards and more content on the way. At just US$0.99 during a current sale, Super Stickman Golf is a bargain. If you’re still not sold, there’s a free version to check out as well.

TUAW’s Daily App: Super Stickman Golf originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The folks at App Advice contacted us about something I just noticed myself this morning: Facebook’s iOS app is rolling out a “People you may know” feature identical to what’s on the social network’s full site.

This new Facebook feature has instantly got me and many other users annoyed at the app, particularly after the recent “#dickbar” debacle which convinced me to permanently abandon the official Twitter client for a third-party app. Some people may welcome this feature, but part of the reason I like Facebook’s iPhone app more than the actual site itself is that a lot of the useless cruft that pollutes Facebook is stripped away in its app. I don’t get deluged with ads or those annoying little app requests that people like to send out en masse; instead, all I’m presented with is all I actually want, the News Feed, photos and my friends list.

Much like the official Twitter app’s (now mercifully removed) QuickBar, this “People you may know” feature is something completely irrelevant to my interests (absolutely everyone ever suggested by this feature has been someone I do not actually know). Like Twitter’s QuickBar, I know I’ll never use this feature, but it’s also something that, for now, I’m unable to get rid of. I seriously hope the Facebook team has learned from the backlash over Twitter’s QuickBar and isn’t planning on making “People you may know” a permanent feature that users aren’t allowed to disable. Otherwise, at least there are always third-party options to tide me over until they come to their senses.

Facebook’s iOS app starts polluting News Feed with ‘People you may know’ originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every six months or so, Codito/Sage Board Games releases another excellent Euro-style board game for iOS. The first example was the excellent Medici, which was followed by Ra. Coming up next is Puerto Rico. Last week they brought us Tikal, a truly wonderful game that won the 1999 Spiel des Jahres award and still stands up to any of the releases coming out today (last year, it even got a sequel, which is just fascinating). While the game is amazing, the Tikal app feels like a 0.9 version, but the crashes and quirks should be worked out quickly if Sage’s history tells us anything.

Tikal the board game is about exploring the jungle around Tikal, the archaeological site, for ancient Mayan temples and treasures. It may be troubling if you think about it in terms of colonizer and indigenous peoples, but sometimes you need to just enjoy brilliant gameplay when you find it. Read on to see how it all works.

Continue reading App Review: Tikal offers jungle brilliance for 10 action points a turn

App Review: Tikal offers jungle brilliance for 10 action points a turn originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A 9to5Mac tipster has discovered that Apple is apparently not officially supporting the iTunes Store for older G3 iMacs and any Macs that need to run older versions of iTunes. This isn’t really surprising; if Apple won’t support software for those older computers, it’s unlikely that the company would bother to make sure its store was compatible with them. But what’s interesting here is that it’s only the store that’s incompatible. As you can see from the screenshot above, the rest of the old iTunes 8.2.1 works as expected.

It seems like Apple just created a new page for the latest version of the iTunes Store and redirected older versions to this one, asking customers to install iTunes 10. You’d think the company would want to at least let customers using older Macs spend their money buying iTunes audio and video, but apparently any potential sales from the older versions are outweighed by the costs of keeping the old site around.

iTunes versions older than 10.0 now incompatible with iTunes Store originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The evil Galactic Empire is well-known for cutting corners in its engineering, with gaping chasms scattered seemingly at random throughout the Death Star without a single guardrail in sight. It turns out the Empire’s computer systems are also woefully out of date; as designer Matt Chase demonstrates, it seems Imperial Stormtroopers, like TK-421, are still using System 6 on their Macs.

From the contents of TK-421’s email inbox, it appears a Stormtrooper’s work is never done. Not only is there some mandatory target practice scheduled, Darth Vader keeps sending increasingly frantic messages concerning a pair of missing droids. The final email, pictured above, is a rather ominous message from [email protected] threatening to blow up the Death Star. Not to worry, TK-421; any attack against the station would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they’ve obtained.

Check out the full graphic of this decidedly old-school Mac desktop here. Note that one or two items in the graphic may be NSFW depending on your locale, especially if your boss is anything like Darth Vader.

[via Neatorama]

Star Wars Stormtroopers use Mac System 6 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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