It appears that China is on a rampage against Apple right now. There has been a lot of news from the iPad’s birthplace regarding patent infringement, accusations from the country’s state media publication regarding discrimination, and even allegation that Apple stole Siri. Today, a State-run film studio out of Shanghai is suing Apple for selling its movies without permission.
Windows launched it’s own mobile tablet in late October of 2012. Its reception was met with lackluster reviews and blasé recognition from the tech world. The Surface RT was being considered a crippled, yet expensive version of a Windows tablet that could have been. By the time the Surface Pro hit store shelves, people were so into the iPad mini that they forgot all about the Windows 8-based tablet.
Recently, Apple has been making some big changes to their apps. Last week, Podcasts was completely remodeled to be user-friendlier. So far, I’m liking it. Yesterday, the iPad maker updated Find my Friends to include a new user interface for setting up location-based alerts.
The Find my Friends app uses geofencing (a defined perimeter that is “fenced in” from the rest of a map) to set up alerts when you or your friends arrive or depart a new location. The update allows users to identify the location more accurately.
We at PadGadget are lucky, lucky people because so many wonderful apps cross our digital desktops that we can’t possibly review them all. In this month’s installment of the Kids’ App Roundup, we include 10 can’t miss apps that will appeal to animal lovers, budding wordsmiths, and anyone who loves a good bedtime story.
Did we miss anything? Please share the name of your favorite newly released edu-apps and games for kids.
Every Friday is a flashback for us here at PadGadget. We love digging through our memories to come up with classic arcade games, retro photography, and whatever makes us feel like a kid again. Last week, we cheated a bit by introducing you to a game that didn’t actually come out decades ago, but it did look and feel like it. We liked Jones on Fire so much that we felt it earned a place on Flashback Friday.
This week, we are flashing back to about 15 years ago, when handheld virtual pets were about the biggest thing since Pogs.
If you were to check out the current New York Magazine iPad app right now, you’d see that it is not exactly popular with its readers. It appears that the media conglomerate has heard the cries of its followers and has been hard at work, rebuilding the entire app landscape in order to right the wrongs that have been created by the digital version of New York Magazine.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away a group of rebel birds stood up against the evil Pigtroopers, battling with lightsabers on a journey to destroy the Dark Lord of the Pigs. Now there’s an all new battle to fight, courtesy of developer Rovio, who today released Angry Birds Star Wars HD version 1.2.0.
With the update comes a brand new Cloud City episode, which includes 20 additional levels along with fun steam gameplay mechanics for a whole new piggy-fighting experience. Check out the video after the break to get a glimpse at the gameplay.
According to a new report from Distimo, in-app purchases remain an incredibly successful way of monetizing in the App Store. While in-app purchases in the United States were responsible for just half of iPhone App Store revenue in January 2012, that number has climbed significantly to 76 percent in February of 2013.
That means the majority of app revenue, both from the iPhone and the iPad, is now coming from the purchase of in-app items and currency. This is immediately evident in the App Store with a simple look at the apps that are earning the most money. On the list of Top Grossing iPad Apps, 19 of the top 20 are free apps. Of those 19 apps, 15 of them are freemium games such as Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans, and Megapolis.
Analytics firm App Annie recently released its February report, which shows that Google, the creator of the Android operating system and Apple’s mobile software nemesis, has surpassed the iPad maker as the top publisher in the iOS App Store for its second month in a row.
The report, according to The Next Web, refers to non-game apps for the month of February. Apple used to be the number one publisher, in terms of downloads, in the App Store. That is, until January, when Google passed the iOS App Store owner with its own non-game apps.
I don’t own a Smart Cover. While they seem like handy protectors for the iPad’s screen, they are fairly expensive for what you get. I mean, what makes them so smart? When I first laid eyes on one, I thought, “Meh.” and looked for something better. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent from Apple that include integrated inductive charging in a smart cover. I thought, “Huh.” Today, the USPTO published another Smart Cover related patent from Apple that has made me think, “Wow.”