Apps

The introduction of the Mac App Store, at least for the Mac’s biggest game publisher Aspyr Media, hasn’t been entirely smooth. Aspyr recently outlined some issues with bringing multiplayer to Mac games due to Game Center and sandboxing restrictions of the Mac App Store, and developing separate versions of games for Steam and the Mac App Store continues to be a hurdle. An example is Borderlands 2. It took Aspyr just two months to ship the Mac version, but the Game Center multiplayer won’t arrive until sometime early this year. However, executives at the company promise Apple’s enthusiasm toward gaming on Mac is stronger than ever thanks to the Mac App Store. Aspyr also said it has much planned for 2013 in Apple’s store and remains platform agnostic, despite running its own competitive GameAgent store.

9to5Mac recently had the chance to speak with Aspyr Vice President of Publishing Elizabeth Howard, with input from CEO Michael Rogers and other execs, about the process of porting games to the Mac App Store, the company’s relationship with Apple and publishers, and the possibility of bringing iOS titles to OS X.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Aspyr is one of the biggest Mac game publishers bringing PC and console titles to OS X. It regularly leads many of the top paid and grossing charts on the Mac App Store thanks to high-profile releases such as Borderlands 2, RAGE, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and much more. Go below for the full interview and a chance to win Borderlands 2 for Mac.
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When it comes to getting stuff done, I’m a bit lazy. I procrastinate a lot. I put off my homework, stuff around the house, and just about anything I need to do.

Clearly, I have a problem with procrastination. It’s not just that I want to put things off until the last second. It’s that I’m incredibly bad at scheduling and forget a lot of things.

Sometimes I create a to-do list in Reminders or put items on my iCloud calendar. Then, the night before those items are due, Reminders or Calendar finally shows an alert informing me that I have a very short period of time to actually do it. Of course, that means I end up moving the due date back, or just failing to accomplish whatever task is on the list. Essentially these strategies are useless to me.

Luckily, a new app called Finish seeks to solve this exact issue. The app was designed by two high school students frustrated with the way existing to-do list managers handled things.

So, did they pull it off? Did they finally design a to-do app that helps end procrastination? Keep reading to find out.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fluKWYRC_w&feature=player_embedded]

9to5Mac has once again scoured the App Store for all the latest app launches, price drops, noteworthy news, and updates, and we have compiled everything in a roundup below. Check it out, but keep coming back as we continually refresh the list throughout the day.

News

1. Google Coordinate | Free
Google launched its Coordinate app on the Apple App Store, but it is a mobile workforce management tool for businesses and requires a Google Coordinate license to work. Non-consumer Google account users will need iOS 5.1 or later to install it.  The iOS app has an Android version, called Google Maps Coordinate, available on the Google Play Store. The iPhone version touts following features:

• Share real-time location. Google Coordinate enables easy collaboration by enabling businesses to leverage real-time location sharing in just a few clicks.
• Manage jobs. Google Coordinate makes it easy to capture all the information needed for a job and to assign them to your team members with instant notifications.
• Collect data. Google Coordinate allows the admin to customize the fields that the mobile team needs to capture and collect – from measurements to client contact details – directly in the app.

Updates

1. Angry Birds Space HD for iPad | $2.99
Version 1.4.0 is now live. Roxio gave the following update description:

The Angry Birds have landed in the weirdest galaxy yet! All the planets are filled with water, strange aquatic life and worst of all — Bad Piggies in boats! Use the unique physics of these water planets to set up some fun trick shots! Also, check out the brand-new power-ups: Flock of Birds, Space Egg, and Pig Puffer! HINT: Make sure to check how Ice Bird and Pig Puffer react to water!

The change log includes 30 new levels, an underwater boss level, three-star levels for there new bonus levels, the ability to use Flock of Birds for a pack of destruction, daily free power-ups, and Power-up specific leaderboards in addition to regular leaderboards.

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Live from the CES show floor at the Las Vegas convention center, accessory maker Incipio just finished showing us their new product for iPhone. Known as a Cashwrap, and landing in March 2013, it is an NFC-enabled iPhone case that allows iOS users to take advantage of the ISIS Mobile Wallet service that officially launched in October on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon for NFC-enabled Android devices in select regions. Incipio also informed us that it has teamed up with AT&T on the project—making Cashwrap AT&T’s ISIS solution for iPhone coming.

The product will launch for iPhone 4 and 4S initially and will be available for sale through AT&T brick-and-mortar locations for $60 to $70. Incipio’s full press release and a short video of the Cashwrap up close and personal from the CES show floor below:
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9to5Mac has once again scoured the App Store for all the latest app launches, price drops, noteworthy news, and updates, and we have compiled everything in a roundup below. Check it out, but keep coming back as we continually refresh the list throughout the day.

News

1. Netflix | Free
Netflix and Warner Bros. Television Group today announced a licensing agreement today that allows U.S. Netflix members to get access to eight shows, as well as potential future shows, produced by Warner Bros:

Among the shows coming to Netflix next year will be “Revolution,” a drama for NBC from J.J. Abrams ‘ Bad Robot Productions set in a post-apocalyptic America which ranks as the #1 new series of the 2012–13 television season; “Political Animals,” the USA Network miniseries with Sigourney Weaver in a Golden Globe– and Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated role as a former First Lady serving as Secretary of State; “Longmire,” A&E’s top-rated Western mystery series based on the novels by best-selling author Craig Johnson ; and “666 Park Avenue,” the ABC supernatural thriller starring Terry O’Quinn and Vanessa Williams.

Get all the details in Netflix’s press release.

More apps and updates are below.

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[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/52132178 w=700&h=393]

At some point, most of us are going to walk away from our computer while it’s turned on. Sometimes when that happens, family members, roommates, or even complete strangers will decide it’s OK to mess with your computer.

Keycard makes it easy to avoid that issue without having to put your machine to sleep and then wake it back up every time you walk away for a few minutes. By pairing it with your iPhone, iPod, or a host of other devices, your Mac can detect when you walk away and lock the screen, keeping others from being able to access your computer while you’re away.

So how well does it work? Check out the rest of the review after the break to find out.

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9to5Mac has once again scoured the App Store for all the latest app launches, price drops, noteworthy news, and updates, and we have compiled everything in a roundup below. Check it out, but keep coming back as we continually refresh the list throughout the day.

New

1. Izik | Free
Izik recently launch as a tablet-optimized app that allows users to browse the Web in a “fun and playful manner.” The app’s description gives the following example:

Type in the name of your favorite band, TV show, sports team, city, recipe – really anything – and izik will produce an image-rich page filled with quality content for you to explore.Content on izik is presented in various categories to allow for minimal typing and to provide context to results. Look up “Jennifer Lopez” and see results under the categories of Lyrics, Gossip, and Perfume. Search for “Lincoln” and see not only movie times, but also sites organized under Reviews, History, and Cars — all accessible with a tap of your fingertip.

There is a free Android version, too. Check out the promo video above for more details.

Updates

1. Madden NFL 12 | 99 cents
Version 1.0.8 brought a Touchdown Challenge that allows users to lead their offense on a two-minute drive for the game winning touchdown. It also included multiplayer mode for challenging a friend via local Bluetooth and improved gameplay.

2. Calendars by Readdle – Universal | $6.99
Version 3.5.1 fixed displaying times in some countries and the ability to create new events with default reminders. The update also brought stability improvements.

3. NexStop -NYC Subway| $1.99
Version 2.3 added support for realtime arrival times on “the 1,2,3,4,5,6 lines and Grand Central Shuttle”, and the app updated with the latest MTA schedule data and maps.

More apps, updates, and deals are below.

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9to5Mac has once again scoured the App Store for all the latest app launches, price drops, noteworthy news, and updates, and we have compiled everything in a roundup below. Check it out, but keep coming back as we continually refresh the list throughout the day.

News

1. Rovio | Rovio App Store Hub
The brains behind the popular Angry Birds Franchise, as well as Bad Piggies and Amazing Alex, just announced via a blog post that Angry Birds saw over 30 million downloads during Christmas week—with 8 million of them being on Christmas Day alone:

Wow, what a year! We released four critically-acclaimed bestselling mobile games, developed two top-rated Facebook games, and reached more than a billion downloads — all before our 3rd “Birdday”! Angry Birds Star Wars and Bad Piggies in particular have dominated the app charts, with Angry Birds Star Wars holding the #1 position on the US iPhone chart ever since its release! To top it all off, we had 30 million downloads during Christmas week (December 22-29) and, on Christmas Day, over 8 million downloads in 24 hours alone!

Check out the infographic above for more details.

Updates

1. Words With Friends – Universal | $2.99
Version 5.70 is now live and features the ability to play with non-Facebook-connected users. The changelog also includes enhanced support for iPhone 5 and the opportunity to post challenges to Facebook friends’ walls. The usual, yet unspecified, bug fixes and improvements are also present.

2. Snapseed – Universal | Free
This popular Google-owned photo app pushed out version 1.5.1, but the update only features a fixed issue in which opening images from camera roll could cause a crash, general bug fixes, and improvements.

3. Scribblenauts Remix – Universal | 99 cents
Version 2.7 landed yesterday and brought the ability to revert back to the original playground and icon. The changelog also boasts minor bug fixes.

More apps, updates, and deals are below.

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The countdown is on.

It’s New Year’s Eve and folks are either getting ready to go out and party or assembling a junk food fest to sit on the couch and gorge the night away, but it’s guaranteed that almost everyone will have their eyes locked on Time Square’s Ball when the clock strikes midnight. Instead of watching this year’s countdown on television, however, just use an iPhone.

The Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball App is the official app to celebrate New Year’s Eve live from New York City, as the app’s description indicates, and it’s free. The main features include the ability to watch the co-hosted official show live, opening ceremonies, musical performances, celebrity appearances, hourly countdowns, and the midnight Ball Drop.

Check it out:

• Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball App – 2013 | Free

Users can also submit images and then vote on friends’ photos to possibly be selected for display on the Toshiba Vision Screen beneath the New Year’s Eve Ball, and they have access to tidbits related to history, news, weather, photos, map, and event schedule. The app also offers New Year’s Eve eCards and the ability to customize the Toshiba Countdown Clock with a personal photo and time zone.

Get more apps and deals below.

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From 9to5toys:

As a special offer to close out the year, Apple is offering the bestselling albums of 2012 on iTunes for $6.99. The promotion is running from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3 only and includes some pretty nice offerings for you hip music listeners in the crowd:

• Babel – Mumfurd & Sons
  
• good kid, m.A.A.d city – Kendrick Lamar
• The World from the Side of the Moon – Phillip Phillips
• The Heist – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
• Take Me Home – One Direction
• Believe – Justin Bieber
• Dreams and Nightmares – Meek Mill
• Warrior – Ke$ha

12 Days of Christmas Day 6:

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As users powered on their new iOS devices and received iTunes gift cards on Christmas day, a strong surge of app downloads obviously followed. According to analytic firm Distimo, App Store downloads increased a whopping 87 percent on Christmas Day, compared to the rest of December 2012. With the increased downloads, revenue consequently rose 70 percent. Interestingly, the iPad and iPad mini seemed to be the most popular iOS gift given, as downloads and revenues rose by 140 percent and 83 percent, respectively.

Distmo also looked at the most downloaded applications from the App Store on Christmas day. They included Google’s standalone YouTube app and the recently released Apple Maps alternative Google Maps at the top. Other top downloads, excluding Apple’s in-house apps like iWork, included: ElfYourself by OfficeMax, Where’s My Holiday?, and Skype for iPad. The numbers that will give us a real look at how iOS device sales were during the Christmas quarter will be during Apple’s January earnings call with investors, where record sales are expected.

Competitor Amazon, who doesn’t like to give hard numbers, detailed some of its shopping statistics for the holiday season. The Seattle-based online retailer said that Christmas day brought the busiest day ever for digital downloads of movies, TV shows, apps, and more. The Angry Bird fans were also busy with purchases, as Angry Birds plush toys would stack up to 285 times the height of the world’s tallest tree in California. Research firm Flurry also detailed that Christmas 2012 saw the highest amount of activated gadgets than any other day in history.

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In June, we told you about BlueStacks. It is a tool that allows Android apps to run on a Mac. The alpha only officially supported 17 Android apps, with Pulse and Words with Friends being the two of the more notable apps at launch, but the application has improved immensely. As Venture Beat first noted, BlueStacks has moved into beta this morning. It now allows users to run every Android app that the Google Play store has to offer. Some may be puzzled at the need to run a mobile application on the desktop, but it does come in use for apps like Instagram and Flipboard that have no desktop equivalent. BlueStacks reminds us a lot of Parallels or VM Ware, and it definitely becomes more useful with the added apps.

As of earlier this month, the Silicon Valley-based company passed 5 million installs on both Windows and Mac. BlueStacks also plans an even more impressive growth with partners AMD and ASUS, as TechCrunch noted, where the software would be pre-installed on over 100 million devices. Upcoming features include an App Discovery system in the Mac app to make it easier for users to find apps. Interested? You can download the beta from BlueStacks.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Brfr7–6ESc]

A new iPhone app released just before Christmas provides a new spin on the panoramic, 360-degree video app, of which there are many competitors in the App Store. Normally, shooting 360-degree video would require the help of a hardware peripheral, such as the GoPano micro, or some crafty manual handwork to maneuver the device 360 degrees. With the new Cycloramic app from Egos Ventures, the iPhone will self-spin around by vibrating at certain frequencies. This allows you to capture hands-free, 360-degree video without a tripod or stand. The video above speaks for itself.

The developers warned the iPhone must be placed upright on a flat, hard surface without a case or stand. They also noted the iPhone 4s “will only turn very slowly on perfectly level glass. This is really designed for iPhone 5.”

The Cycloramic app is available for 99 cents on the App Store now, and you’ll find some demo videos from the developer’s YouTube page below. There’s even one of Woz trying out the app in his kitchen:

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