Coolest free iPad apps of the day, for iPhone, iPod Touch too

One of the coolest free iPad apps of the day, for iPhone, iPod Touch too has just arrived in the App Store Tuesday, according to a Nov 5 article in AppCraver. It's called “Tomato Tycoon” and it combines cool animation and fun sounds with simple game app play to generate lots of fun action.

The goal of this cool arcade game is to avoid obstacles and catch as many tomatoes as you can. While “Tomato Tycoon” begins simply, it gets more challenging as you play and more up its 64 levels (there are also mini-games too). Along the way you'll pick-up some cool facts about tomatoes.

Another cool new free app is an Nike app that has just been released to the App Store today. This cool Nike app follows the release of Nike's long-awaited “FuelBand SE”. “FuelBand SE” is a bracelet-style tracker that you wear on your wrist for it to measure how active you are. Well, rather than shell-out the $150.00 for the “FuelBand SE”, you might want to consider this free and cool Nike app that just hit the App Store.

“Nike+Move” captures your every move and motivates you to exercise, just like “FuelBand SE”. The only difference is you don't need to wear a bracelet—and this app is free. This cool app, which is trending very popular, uses the M7 coprocessor in your iPhone 5s to measure your activities. For example, you can see how much you walk or run each day. You can also compare your day to day activities. Because this free app connects to Game Center, you can also challenge your friends to see who exercises more. How cool is this!

“Tomato Tycoon” is compatible with iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and is optimized for iPhone 5 and requires iOS 5. “Nike+Move” is also compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, is optimized for iPhone 5 and requires iOS 7.

Source: The Examiner

Apple's iPad Air can better exploit the A7 chip than the iPhone 5S

Apple's A7 chip has trickled down to the latest iPad Air after being introduced in the iPhone 5S, and users will see more benefits of the 64-bit chip in tablets than in smartphones, analysts say.

The iPad Air will deliver two times the CPU and graphics performance than its predecessor, said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, during an event in San Francisco where the new tablet was announced.

The A7 chip opens the door "for even more robust and powerful apps" on the iPad Air, Apple wrote on its website. Applications and games will run much faster, Apple said.

The benefit of a 64-bit chip in the iPhone 5S has been intensely debated, but Apple will have to spend less time justifying a 64-bit processor in the iPad Air, analysts said. Some critics have called 64-bit technology marketing hype and overkill for a handset, but more relevant for devices like PCs, servers and, to a lesser extent, tablets.

The benefits of the 64-bit A7 chip will be visible as the iPad Air will be able to run more demanding applications than smartphones. But the results may not be immediate as applications need to be ready to take advantage of the 64-bit features.

"Tablet users can create more content and multitask more on their tablets than phones, and 64 bits helps a lot," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, in an email.

The A7 is more justifiable in the 64-bit iPad Air from a value standpoint when compared to smartphones, and the screen size makes a big difference, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64.

"It's likely you'll be doing video editing on a tablet," Brookwood said. "People who want to do multiperson, interactive games will have a better experience because of the increased [screen] real estate on tablets."

Apple is taking the lead in bringing 64-bit applications to mobile devices. Brookwood, who attended the event, said the company's 64-bit applications like iPhoto and iMovie, which are both on Mac OS and iOS, were demonstrated at the event and were much faster.

The software for the iPad Air needs to be ready to take advantage of the 64-bit features, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. Apple's iOS and developer tools are 64-bit ready, and applications are under development.

"The silicon is almost always out ahead of the software. It was true in PCs, it's true in servers, it's true here," Gold said.

The switch also helps developers, who can start the transition to 64-bit applications. Tablet app developers will likely move faster to 64-bit than iPhone developers, Gold said.

Source: Computer World

Oyster Brings 'Netflix for E-Books' App to iPad, Opens to Public

A little more than a month after launching an iPhone app in invitation-only beta, Oyster is making its e-book subscription service available to all users and expanding to iPad.

Oyster charges $9.95 a month for access to more than 100,000 books from big and small publishers, but it now offers users one free month with the hope of getting more people to try the app experience. The startup declined to provide data on the number of users or books read during the beta period, but noted that 1 million pages were read in the first 10 days the app was available and another million pages were read in the following six days.

"When people first sign on to the [iPhone] app, they engage with several titles and when they find what they want, they generally stick with that from start to finish," Eric Stromberg, cofounder of Oyster, told Mashable in a recent interview. "With the iPad, what we are really hoping for is that people might spend an hour just browsing through books in the same way that you do your local bookshop or local library."

The iPad app very similarly to the iPhone app, but with more of an emphasis on using the screen's extra real estate to enhance the browsing experience. Oyster highlights books in different categories, similar to Netflix, shows which books your friends are reading on the service and lets readers flip through pages by scrolling up and down or tapping on the side of the page.

Just in the few weeks since Oyster unveiled the beta version of its app, the so-called "Netflix for e-books" space has grown noticeably more crowded. Scribd, the popular document sharing service, jumped into the ring earlier this month with a slightly cheaper ebook subscription service — $8.99 per month — but an undisclosed number of books to read.

Trip Adler, Scribd's cofounder and CEO, described the new e-book service as a logical extension of its subscription option for premium documents and argued that Scribd's more established brand made it a stronger contender to dominate what he sees as being a multi-billion dollar market.

"Netflix is worth about $18 billion. Spotify is worth about $3 billion," Adler told us at the time. "I don't see why there isn't a similar opportunity in this space."

Stromberg appeared to be unfazed by Scribd's entrance into the market. "It's no surprise that other people see that same opportunity that we see," he said. "But the space is very early."

When asked whether he too believes e-book subscriptions could be a multi-billion dollar market, Stromberg had a more cautious answer than Adler. "We have aspirations for our company and certainly look to other companies like Netflix, one of the largest technology companies in the world, and see that as a great indicator that a company like ours can grow."

Oyster has raised $3 million to date from Founders Fund and plans to build out its service on other platforms in the future.

Source: Mashable

iPad 5 Release Date: Specs, Features, Price News Roundup Ahead of Apple Event October 2013

iPad 5 Silver Rear Shell

The next generation iPad 5 is rumored to be released in October at Apple's eagerly anticipated event, and over recent months rumors about the device's specs, features and price have been swirling.

Here is a round up of some of the most probably rumors concerning the upcoming next generation tablet.

Release Date

Apple is touted to be holding a special event on October 15, 2013 where the iPad 5 will be released. Invitations are expected to be released to the press this week, which should confirm as such.

Traditionally Apple always sends out press invitations a week prior to holding its special events and keynote events where major products are released.

Specs and Features

The iPad 5 is expected to undergo a major redesign – which would be the first for years. The new iPad is expected to be much lighter than previous models, and thinner – similar to that of the first generation iPad Mini.

The iPad 5 is expected to feature the A7 chip, which of course powers Apple's new iPhone 5S device. It is also expected to feature the new M7 chip, which is a motion co-processor that is inside the latest iPhone. The tablet obviously will come with a Retina display.

Rumors have also suggested that a wireless charging feature will be released with the new iPad 5. Apple filed a patent in September 2011 for such a feature and numerous sources over recent weeks have claimed that the iPad 5 will be the first to feature this.

Price

The iPad 5 is rumored to sell starting from $399 and will rise from there for the higher memory devices.

Colors

Although there has not been any confirmation from Apple – there never is in advance to their devices being released – many rumors have been sparked about the iPad 5 being released in different colors.

Apple's iPhone 5S featured a new gold colored version, and many believe that the iPad 5 will also feature a gold version due to the huge popularity of the new color choice. Whether that turns out to be true or not remains to be seen.

Source: Christian Post

iPad Mini 2 with sharper display 'faces delays'

The company is only now beginning to make the high-resolution screens for the device which could be released with limited stock, sources told Reuters.

Apple are yet to announce what changes will feature in the iPad Mini 2 but it has been widely expected to improve the quality of the display to catch up with rivals.

"Retina" is a term coined by Apple to indicate when a device has a high enough pixel density that the human eye cannot notice the pixelation from a typical viewing distance.

The displays are found in other Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch, MacBook Pro and some iPads. Similar quality screens are currently found in rival tablets from Google and Amazon.

Sources told Reuters they expected Apple will either wait until early next year for a full-fledged launch of a retina display iPad Mini, or make a retina version only available in limited quantities before the end of the year.

Apple has faced growing competition in the tablet market as rivals look to muscle in on the space with new launches. The company shipped a lower-than-expected 14.6 million tablets in the second quarter last year, down from 19.5 million in the first.

Details of the new version of iPad Mini could be unveiled this month and some believe Apple may lower the price of the handset in order to boost sales in emerging markets.

"Right now the iPad Mini is more expensive than everyone else in the 7- to 8-inch tablet segment," said Arthur Liao, an analyst for Fubon Securities in Taipei.

"If it could reduce its price by even just $50, it would appeal to more consumers."

Read more at Telegraph

iPad mini with Retina display 'out by end of 2013'

It is not yet clear whether the redesigned 9.7-inch iPad and Retina display iPad mini will launch simultaneously, Bloomberg said.

The next version of the iPad will be adapted to look more like the current iPad Mini, with rounded corners and thinner sides, one source told the news organisation.

Details on the new iPad mini were sparse apart from the addition of a Retina display, as featured in the current iPad.

A Retina display would also bring the new iPad Mini in line with other Apple devices, including the iPhone, iPod Touch and MacBook Pro. The current iPad Mini comes with a lower-resolution 132ppi screen from LG and Taiwan's AU Optronics.

Retina display is a brand name used by Apple for their liquid crystal displays, in which pixelation is imperceptible to the human eye. Other brands also offer higher resolution screens, marketed simply as high definition.

The Californian company will be hoping the potential double-product launch will boost tablet sales, after global shipment of the devices fell from the first quarter to the second quarter of this year.

Apple, still the market leader in the tablet-manufacturing sector, ahead of Samsung, shipped a lower-than-predicted total of 14.6 million tablets in the second quarter last year, down from 19.5 million in the first.

“A new iPad launch always piques consumer interest in the tablet category and traditionally has helped both Apple and its competitors, said Tom Mainelli, a research director at the International Data Corporation.

“With no new iPads, the market slowed for many vendors, and that’s likely to continue into the third quarter. However, by the fourth quarter we expect new products from Apple, Amazon and others to drive impressive growth in the market.”

There have also been rumours online that the new iPhone 5S, expected to be released on September 10, will come with a protruding, sapphire button rather than the concave plastic one which currently features on the devices.

Read more.......

China Mobile, Apple still 'actively negotiating' iPhone, iPad deal

China Mobile is still talking to Apple about bringing the iPhone to its network. New comments from China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua reveal that the two companies "are actively negotiating and both sides are keen," which could potentially see subscribers of the Chinese carrier being able to buy and use the iOS smartphones on its TD-SCDMA network in the future.

Even though Tim Cook visited the country and spoke to the carrier late last month, with the meeting believed to be about the iPhone and iPad, the deal is still far from completed. "There are still some commercial and technology issues that need time to resolve," said Xi according to Reuters, with the use of the proprietary TD-SCDMA instead of usual 3G networks being the likely cause, though China Mobile has been working on its own 4G LTE network.

Though Apple and China Mobile have been in talks for quite some time about introducing the iPhone to the carrier, the comments from China Mobile are not necessarily a sign that it will take place anytime soon. That said, Chinese iPhone launches typically happen a number of months after it gets released in the United States and other markets, so there is still time for the two companies to agree before the expected launch of the iPhone 5S and the rumored iPhone 5C next month.

By Electronista…

Video shows what looks like iOS 7 running on an iPad

What will iOS 7 look like on an iPad?

Apple has yet to give developers an iPad version of iOS 7, but photos, videos, and reports are popping up left and right about what the new operating system will look like on the tablet.

A new iPad iOS 7 video (see below) surfaced Tuesday from a Russian-based YouTube user named Rozetked who claims to have the upcoming OS running on his iPad. In the video, the user holding an iPad taps and swipes through different screens and features.

What's shown is awfully similar to what is known about iOS 7 for the iPhone and iPod Touch. When Apple announced the debut of iOS 7 for those devices at WWDC last week, the company said it dramatically redesigned the look and feel of the user interface. This appears to be shown in Rosetked's video.

Icons, buttons, and color schemes all look like they've been revamped. The screen also has a swipe feature at the bottom of the device for quick access to various features -- just like with iOS 7 for the iPhone.

Still, it's unclear if this video is indeed showing Apple's legitimate iOS 7 for the iPad or just some mock-up.

CNET contacted Apple for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.

Via: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57589952-37/video-shows-what-looks-like-ios-7-running-on-an-ipad/

New cases hint at iPad 5 with thinner bezel

Apple's next iPad has been rumored for months, and leaks about possible cases suggest some design changes are coming.

Vietnamese site Tinhte today posted a video showing what it claims is a case designed for the next iPad. The case's height is slightly shorter and its width is notably thinner when compared to the current, big-screen iPad.

The case design lends credence to reports that the company's next big-screen slate will have a much thinner bezel. Apple's iPad Mini, which reports suggest the next large iPad's design will be based on, comes with a thin bezel on the sides of the screen.

Apple, of course, has not hinted at what its next iPad will look like, but it's possible that Apple could reveal some details at its Worldwide Developers Conference next month.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57586813-37/new-cases-hint-at-ipad-5-with-thinner-bezel/