Leander Kahney's Blog, page 1459

Random Acts Of Kindness Go Mobile With iPhone App

These days of spectacularly gloomy news just might be getting you down. If you're looking for an antidote to the "If it bleeds, it leads" media mentality, a do-good iPhone app might be just the thing.

Called "Boom Boom!" it'll feed you a diet of good news and shared acts of kindness to go. The free app is based on a feel-good game called Boom Boom cards, which has 26 acts of kindness that you (or your kids, or teens) perform and keep track of.

They've nicknamed the mobile version "Everyday Boom Boom!" (sounds vaguely like a 70s funk anthem) and hope it will encourage more acts of kindness on-the-go.

Nice idea, though I'm bit weirded out at the undercurrent of bellicose language they use to promote it (you'd expect more of a goody-goody feel?) about "agents of altruism" "instigating change" and celebrating "any underground act of guerilla goodness" or "clandestine kindness." It all sounds a little pushy.

What do you think?

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Published on December 08, 2011 14:39

Apple Releases Logic Pro And MainStage In The Mac App Store

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Apple has released its professional music applications for the Mac, Logic Pro and MainStage, in the Mac App Store. These two additions follow other high-end tools that Apple has brought to the Mac App Store, including Final Cut Pro X.

Logic Pro is available for $199 while MainStage costs $29.99. Both apps have also been updated with new features and improvements.

Logic Pro 9.1.6

Logic Pro 9 is a complete set of creative tools for any musician who wants to write, record, edit, and mix music. It comes with a massive collection of instruments, effects, and Apple Loops, making it easy to get amazing sounds and create amazing-sounding songs.

This latest version of Logic includes multiple bug fixes. The download weighs in at 413 MB. You can download Logic in the Mac App Store for $199.

MainStage 2.2

MainStage 2 lets you take your Mac to the stage with a full-screen live interface, unmatched hardware control, and a massive collection of plug-ins and sounds.

Along with a refreshed interface, MainStage can now take advantage of Macs with 4+ processor cores. The download weighs in at 303 MB. Support for more MIDI devices has also been added. MainStage can be downloaded in the Mac App Store for $29.99

According to The Loop, existing Logic users will be able to receive this latest update through Software Update on their Macs, but this new version of MainStage is only available in the Mac App Store. Apple has stopped offering boxed copies of Logic in its retails stores and Logic Express has been discontinued.

The fact that Apple has moved both of these apps to the Mac App Store signals that they are here to stay.

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Published on December 08, 2011 14:12

Hate Your Jawbone UP? Keep It And Get A Full Refund

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Jawbone has pulled its newly-released UP health band and offered a "no questions asked" guarantee that customers can get a full refund and keep the product.

In an official statement Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman says "We recognize that this product has not yet lived up to everyone's expectations – including our own – so we're taking action."

Earlier this year, we unveiled Jawbone's vision to help people live a healthier life with UP. We've been thrilled by the passionate response to this product. We heard from tens of thousands of you through emails, tweets, blog posts and on our forums about how you're changing your lifestyle and becoming consumers of your own health. In just four weeks, UP users have collectively taken over three billion steps, gotten more than 300 years of sleep and captured hundreds of thousands of meals.

While many of you continue to enjoy the UP experience, we know that some of you have experienced issues with your UP band. Given our commitment to delivering the highest quality products, this is unacceptable and you have our deepest apologies. We've been working around the clock to identify the root causes and we'd like to thank everyone who has provided us with information and returned their bands to us for troubleshooting. With your help, we've found an issue with two specific capacitors in the power system that affects the ability to hold a charge in some of our bands. We're also fixing an issue with syncing related to the band hardware. Typically, these issues surface within the first seven to ten days of use. The glitches are purely performance related and do not pose any safety risk.

The health monitor tool was initially met with positive coverage, but the UP failed to be the game-changer that everyone expected. The UP looked trendy and hip with its sleek design and companion iPhone app, but it failed to work well for most people.

Starting tomorrow, UP customers can take part in Jawbone's new program and get a full refund in either the form of cash or store credit. Jawbone doesn't even want its wristband back. Keep it and keep trying to track your stair stepper workouts.

The refund program lasts through December 31 and begins tomorrow. Jawbone has also cancelled all pending UP orders and removed the product from its retail partners, including Amazon and Apple.

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Published on December 08, 2011 13:47

Google Releases Personalized Magazine App, Google Currents — And We're Launch Partners!

In an effort to keep up with the entrance of popular magazine-style web readers like the ever popular (and Phil Schiller approved) Flipboard, Google has just released their new app, Currents, for both iOS Android. And our sites Cult of Mac and Cult of Android are both launch partners!

Offering a personalized, magazine-style reading experience on mobile devices that is automatically resized and recromulated depending on the size of the device screen you're viewing it on, the big advantage of Currents over the likes of Flipboard or Zite is that Currents uses Google's massive index of the web to bring you trending content in your interests groups.

Here's how Google describes Google Currents:

Publisher editions – Publishers such as Forbes, TechCrunch, Saveur, Popular Science, Good, 500px, Fast Company and more have produced hundreds of editions including in-depth articles, videos, fine photography, slideshows, live-maps, and social streams.

Google trending editions – Google Currents uses Google search technology to hourly build a set of editions tracking the five most recent trending stories in categories such as world, entertainment, sports, science, and more. Each story is presented through a fresh edition of articles, videos, and pictures,

Your favorite blogs and feeds – Instantly, turn your Google Reader subscriptions, or any of your favorite blogs/feeds into a beautiful edition with a magazine feel.

Each edition is available for high speed offline reading, and provides quick-touch sharing. Google Propeller self-adapts to differently sized phones and tablets, with your subscriptions synchronized across devices. Google Currents – a reading experience not to be missed.

Google Currents can also handle rich media and other different types of online content (although obviously no Flash).

We've been using Google Currents all morning, and we're loving what we're seeing so far. It's not as flashy as Flipboard, but I actually prefer that. Anyway, give it a shot, and make sure to subscribe to Cult of Android and Cult of Mac once you've downloaded the app! We'd be much obliged (and let's face it: it beats our mobile site).

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Published on December 08, 2011 13:12

SNES RPG Classic Chrono Trigger Hits The iPhone!

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Holy cow! They'd been teasing it forever, but all of sudden, now it's here: Square-Enix has just released their beloved SNES era classic Chrono Trigger on the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch!

If you've never played Chrono Trigger, you're in for a treat. It's one of those classics that, unlike many of its peers, continues to impress 16 years later. A time-travel based RPG, Chrono Trigger's development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a freelance designer and creator of Enix's popular Dragon Quest series; and Akira Toriyama, a freelance manga artist famed for his work with Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball.

Square-Enix's ports in the past have been a little rough around the edges, and it's too early to say if Chrono Trigger follows that pattern, although my initial reaction is positive. Sadly, like most Square-Enix games, this one's a bit expensive at $8.99, and it also sadly isn't available as a universal binary for playing on the iPad.

Still, if you like RPGs at all, this is one to install on your iPhone post-haste. I'll see you at the End of Time.

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Published on December 08, 2011 12:30

What's The Best iOS Game Of 2011? [Poll]

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2011 is quickly drawing to a close, and before we shut down our computers and get drunk for Christmas, we thought it would be a good idea to celebrate some of this year's finest iOS games. We've compiled a list of our favorites and we'd like you to vote for the game the you think is this year's greatest.

Now, Apple approves thousands of new iOS apps each and every day, so it's impossible for us to keep track of every game released in 2011. However, we think we've put together a pretty great shortlist that includes 20 of the most popular titles this year.

And if you don't agree with us, all you have to do is write-in your answer, or leave a comment with your suggestions down below.

On Thursday, December 15, we'll announce the top 10 finalist, then the following week declare 2011′s best iOS game as chosen by you. So, what are you waiting for? Get voting!

What Is 2011′s Best iOS Game?

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Published on December 08, 2011 12:11

Samsung Gets Thrown Out of French Court, Must Pay Apple's Legal Bills

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Samsung has a hit on its hands. Unfortunately, it involves being thrown out of court — this time in France. To add insult to injury, not only did a French panel call an attempt to ban iPhone 4S sales "disproportionate," but ordered the South Korean smartphone company to pay Apple's legal bills.

The Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris ruled Samsung must pay 100,000 euros ($133,900) to cover Apple's legal expenses. The ruling ends Samsung's Oct. 5 lawsuit against Apple. The French lawsuit claimed Apple infringed on two patents covering WCDMA used for 3G. The request for a sales injunction was filed just nine days before the iPhone 4S was due to hit shelves.

The defeat is just the latest for Samsung. An Italian judge rejected an injunction against Apple, although a review of the case is set for Dec. 16.

Samsung will always have Australia, though. There, an court lifted a temporary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, permitting the South Korean firm to sell its tablet during the all-important holiday buying period. However, Samsung and Apple are still in several courtrooms, including the United States.

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Published on December 08, 2011 12:03

Set Up Gmail The Right Way And Have New Mail Pushed To Your iPhone [iOS Tip]

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Apple makes it incredibly easy for you to set up a Gmail account on your iPhone — you simply hit the Gmail button when setting up a new account and enter your login details. But with just a little bit more effort, you can enjoy a much better Gmail experience — one that pushes new emails straight to your device as they come in.

Here's how to set up Gmail the right way on your iPhone.

First, you need to begin setting up a new mail account, either through the Settings app, or directly within the Mail app if you haven't set up an email account already.

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Instead of selecting the Gmail option, however, you want to select Microsoft Exchange.

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Now, in the 'Email' field, enter your full Gmail email address. Leave the 'Domain' field blank. Next to 'Username', you need to enter your email address again, including the "@gmail.com" portion. And next to 'Password', you need to put your password. In the 'Description' field, you can label your new account whatever you wish.

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Now tap the 'Next' button in the top right-hand corner. If you get an "Unable To Verify Certificate" error, simply hit the cancel button and ignore it — it won't stop you from connecting to your account.

A new field will pop up labeled 'Server'. In this box, type "m.google.com" and then hit the 'Next' button again.

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You can now choose to enable or disable mail, contacts, and calendar syncing with your Gmail account. I'm guessing you'll want to keep the mail one on, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this tip, but you can disable the other two if you do not use them. Once you're happy, simply hit the 'Save' button and your new account will be created.

You can now access your Gmail account using the Mail app, and new mail you receive will automatically be pushed to your device.

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The first time you open Mail and it syncs with the server may be a little slow, because it'll need to download all your emails, but everything should be pretty snappy after that.

If, after using your Gmail account for a day or so, you find new emails aren't being pushed to your device, you may have push services disabled. To enable this, open up the Settings app on your iPhone and then tap the 'Mail, Contacts, Calendars' tab.

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Beneath your mail accounts, you'll find the 'Fetch New Data' options. Tap on this and ensure the 'Push' toggle is turned on.

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Published on December 08, 2011 12:00

Apple Names Their Choices For Best Apps And Games Of 2011 With iTunes Rewind

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Following their annual holiday tradition, Apple has just published iTunes Rewind 2011, their list of their own personal best apps and games across twenty-one categories. And as usual, there's some surprising choices.

Perhaps most surprising is the choice of Tiny Tower as the iPhone Game of the Year, over other best sellers like Tiny Wings. Best iPad Game of the year is also a strange choice: Dead Space, which is a perfectly enjoyable game, but not quite as good (or as popular) as choices like Infinity Blade II. Sword and Sworcery was declared runner-up for best iPad game of the year.

For the apps category, no surprise, Instagram was voted Best iPhone app of the year, while Snapseed was declared the best iPad app of the year (djay and Jamie's Recipes by Jamie Oliver came in second and third, respectively).

Finally, on the Mac App Store side of things, Pixelmator was declared the App of the Year, while Civilization V was voted game of the year.

Here is the complete list:

Top Paid iPhone Apps:
1. Angry Birds
2. Fruit Ninja
3. Angry Birds Seasons
4. Cut the Rope
5. Tiny Wings
6. Angry Birds Rio
7. Words With Friends
8. Camera+
9. Doodle Jump
10. Plants vs. Zombies
___
Top Free iPhone Apps:
1. Facebook
2. Pandora Radio
3. Words with Friends Free
4. Angry Birds Free
5. Skype
6. Netflix
7. Angry Birds Rio Free
8. Groupon
9. Fruit Ninja Lite
10. Twitter
___
iPad Apps
Top Paid iPad Apps:
1. Angry Birds HD
2. Pages
3. Angry Birds Seasons
4. GarageBand
5. Angry Birds Rio HD
6. Penultimate
7. Fruit Ninja HD
8. Cut the Rope HD
9. SCRABBLE for iPad
10. Keynote
___
Top Free iPad Apps
1. Angry Birds HD Free
2. The Weather Channel for iPad
3. Netflix
4. CNN App for iPad
5. Angry Birds Rio HD Free
6. Kindle
7. Skype for iPad
8. Calculator for iPad Free
9. Pandora Radio
10. Calculator Pro for iPad Free

These are actually some pretty good choices, but obviously, there's a lot of room for debate. Do you think Apple dropped the ball not recognizing a particular app? Let us know in the comments.

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Published on December 08, 2011 11:58

Twitter Releases New iPhone App

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Today, Twitter announced a new design for the popular micro-blogging site that will start rolling out over the next couple of weeks, which they hope will make it easier than ever to connect with other users and discover great new content.

If you go to Twitter.com, you won't see the sexy new interface for a while yet, but as part of their push to update all officially supported Twitter platforms to the new paradigm, Twitter has pushed out a totally overhauled version of the Twitter for iPhone app.

Twitter for iPhone 4.0 is a free download, and by all accounts, it's even faster and more pleasant to use than ever before.

The main addition to the new Twitter app is four new buttons that act as hubs for the way you interact with Twitter. The official description lays out the methodology of the hubs:

Home is where you start from: a personal collection of Tweets from the sources you care about. The Tweet details show rich information such as replies, retweets and embedded images.

Connect is the place to see who followed or mentioned you, retweeted or favorited one of your Tweets. It's where you keep the conversation flowing.

Discover is where you can tap into the stories and trends people are talking about in your world. You can also find friends, browse interests, and explore hashtags here.

Me puts you and your interests front and center. From here you can exchange Direct Messages with your followers.

The new app looks great, but the changes haven't yet come to the iPad version, so unless you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you won't see any changes.

What do you think of the new Twitter app? Let us know.