Twitter released a new iPhone app that didn't sit well with some users. Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin's obsession with a certain iOS app landed the actor on the tarmac with nowhere to go. These and other topics made news during the week that was.
Industry News
Amid Hardware Failures Jawbone Announces UP Users Can Get Their Money Back And Keep The Bracelet / Read Entire Article
As we previously reported, a number of Jawbone UP users have run into problems with their device, things such as syncing and charging issues. Today, Hosain Rahman, the CEO of Jawbone
issued a statement acknowledging the issue. He announced that the company will address the problem by issuing a full refund to its customers, while still letting them keep the device.
Beginning Dec. 9, 2011, users can
request a full refund for each UP bracelet they own. No questions asked.
Access Your iOS Settings From The Notification Center With This App - No Jailbreaking Required / Read Entire Article
App Switcher today arrived in the App Store. The $.99 utility makes it easier to quickly launch your top tasks via the app, as well as access them directly from the iOS 5.0 Notification Center.
Created by
Pepper Stuff, App Switcher isn’t flashy, but it should make your life a little bit easier. And setting it up is quick and pain free. First you’ll need to make some adjustments to your iPhone’s Settings app. These step-by-step instructions are available here and also within the app.
Actor Kicked Off Airplane For Playing "Words With Friends" / Read Entire Article
Alec Baldwin, star of the hit television series 30 Rock (and
countless mediocre Hollywood films), loves Words With Friends.
I mean,
he really loves Words With Friends.
He loves the Zynga puzzler so much, he was willing to get off an airplane--and delay hundreds of American Airlines passengers--in order to keep playing. See, instead of complying with pre-flight FAA guidelines and turning off his electronic device (Let's hope it wasn't an iPhone!),
American Airlines claims the crotchety actor
stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the plane's lavatory. He slammed the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed, even with the cockpit door closed and locked. They immediately contacted the cabin crew to check on the situation.
Then, Baldwin took to berating flight attendants and crew members, tweeting nasty remarks, and generally making an ass of himself. He was, of course, booted from the plane. And, of course, he blames everyone but himself.
App News
Apple Reveals App Store Rewind 2011 / Read Entire Article
Apple, moments ago, unveiled their
best apps for 2011. The top iPhone app of the year is
Instagram, while the company’s best iPad app is
Snapseed.
In addition, Apple revealed that
Tiny Tower and
Dead Space for iPad were the best games for the iPhone and iPad, respectively, for the year.
The New Twitter for iPhone: We Hate It, Too / Read Entire Article
Twitter has been making some changes, as I’m sure most of you have noticed. Not only are they
changing the way they do mobile, they’re
changing the Web experience entirely, and they scooped up
Tweetdeck for Mac and changed that too.
Twitterland is ripe with chatter over these changes. Although most think the
new Web interface is a step up, it seems most are up in arms over the new
Twitter for iPhone.
With Renewed Focus, Color Readies For Its Second Act, This Time With Facebook (Updated) / Read Entire Article
Color is getting ready for its close-up. Again.
The company, which raised a reported $41 million, only to see its first iOS product fail miserably, has spent the last few months attempting to figure out what to do next. The result, call it Color 2.0, is to replace the Facebook status update, 30 seconds at a time.
It was in
March that one of the most-publicized iOS apps arrived in the App Store: Color, a location-based photo sharing service. Using the free iPhone/iPod touch app, users would take photos of themselves and of objects around them. Color would then create a hodgepodge of photos taken in the same location, which were then posted at
Color.com and within the app.
Apple’s Cards App Could Ruin Your Lunch / Read Entire Article
Sending holiday cards to friends and family has long been a tradition that continues today even though more innovative (and cheaper) ways to reach out exist, such as through email and with e-cards. In October, Apple confirmed that sending real greeting cards remains popular, as the world’s largest tech company introduced its free
Cards app for the iPhone/iPod touch.
The app has a basic premise; choose from a variety of cards, add a photo , and then let Apple deliver the finished product in 3-4 days. For this, Apple charges $2.99 for U.S. delivery or $4.99 anywhere in the world, which includes postage.
Since I consider myself technical savvy and also enjoy sending Christmas cards, I looked forward to using the Cards app this season to send a few of my cards. I did earlier this week, with an interesting result.
FlipBoard For iPhone Gets A Bump From Apple's Head Of Marketing / Read Entire Article
Flipboard's brand new iPhone app is so nice even Apple's SVPs are commenting on it.
In a Twitter update that recently hit the Web, Phil Schiller endorsed the application, noting that the "[n]ew Flipboard app for iPhone is very nice." Furthermore, Flipboard also announced today that its iPad app has been downloaded over 4.5 million times, meaning that Flipboard, on average, has been installed on around one in every 10 iPads.
The universal update to Flipboard hit the App Store last night, and many have been impressed with the application (which can be downloaded for free). Flipboard's figures regarding the iPad app evidence that the application is, indeed, very popular among iOS fans.
Child’s Play And Doctors Without Borders To Receive Proceeds From 12 Independent App Developers This Month / Read Entire Article
Receiving a new iPad or iMac this holiday season would be a gift few of us would reject. Of course, we all know that giving is more important than receiving. With this in mind, 12 developers have joined together to pledge 25 percent of the sales of 12 of their apps, after Apple's 30 percent cut, to two charities. These are
Child's Play and
Doctors Without Borders.
The developers include:
Acceleroto,
Celsius Game Studios,
Fargoal,
Godzi Lab, GRL Games,
Imangi Studios,
Magicule,
One Man Left,
Pixelocity Software,
Retro Dreamer, and
Sykhronics Entertainment.
The apps are for iPhone/iPod touch:
Christmas Air Hockey,
Sword of Fargoal,
Tilt to Live,
Harbor Master,
Disc Drivin',
iBlast Moki,
Galcon Labs, and
Full Deck Word Games. Universal apps include
Velocispider,
Trainyard and
Red Nova.
Smiles HD is the iPad-only app.
Rolling Stone's New iPad App; The Beatles Deserve Better / Read Entire Article
The band broke up 40 years ago and two of its four members are dead. Still, The Beatles remain perhaps the most popular group ever to sing a song. This continued popularity, no doubt, led to the holiday release of
Rolling Stone’s Beatles Album-by-Album Guide, available now for the iPad in the App Store. Unfortunately, The Beatles deserved much more than this.
Created by the editors of America’s most venerable music news magazine, the $9.99 e-book charts The Beatles from their very first album in 1963, Please Please Me, to the group’s last, Let It Be, in 1970. In total, the app includes behind-the-scenes stories for each of the group’s 13 official albums, plus scores of classic Beatles photos. In addition, the app includes track-by-track insights and audio samples for every song on every album. Plus, if you’re missing a track in your collection, links to iTunes are readily available.
