Apps

Angry Birds Plushies at Amazon

Everyone’s favorite iOS game, Angry Birds just got updated with 15 new levels, a new theme and more…

Angry Birds is back with a brand new update!

New Features in version 1.5.0:
– A NEW THEME IN THE FRONTIER BADLANDS
– 15 NEW LEVELS – NO BELLYACHIN’
– A NEW GOLDEN EGG FOR Y’ALL CITY SLICKERS
– COWBOY UP WITH THE MIGHTY EAGLE

We’d like to take this opportunity to extend our infinite gratitude to friends of our fierce birds everywhere. We thank you sincerely from the bottoms of our fluffy hearts for making Angry Birds the highest rated and best selling game ever on iTunes!

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Good news from billionaire Richard Branson’s iPad publishing venture — Project: you can download Project 1 for free for the holidays. And, as this video shows, the winner of the title’s competition to design the front cover of issue two has been announced.
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SkyFire for iPad has just hit the App Store and it brings flash video content to the iPad as well as a slew as other bonuses not found on the native Safari web browser. SkyFire for iPad costs $4.99 and an iPhone version is available as well for $2.99. SkyFire for iPad’s feature list is after the break.

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We just love surprises here at 9to5Mac, from the news that the MacBook Pro is the biggest-selling laptop on Amazon at time of writing (second-best in the UK) to the peachy-keen deals on Apple Protection there, but that’s not what this story is about — this surprise comes from the developers at Occipital who have uncovered secret augmented reality capabilities within Mobile Safari for iOS 4.2, woot!!
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Henry Ford may famously be thought to have said, “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black,” as he invented mass production, but now it looks like the veteran auto company has an iPhone fixation, revealing support for the Apple device in future generations of its vehicles running the Ford Sync AppLink platform.

Some may note my determination that Apple has a story to tell in the automobile industry — perhaps partnerships will make this story thrive. So, what will this mean?
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A “leaked” picture of Flipboard for Mac made the rounds this morning and many had their doubts about its legitimacy. Flipboard contacted 9to5mac to let us know the “screenshot” is fake and “is not from Flipboard.” Flipboard also told us:

We definitely believe the desktop is part of our future, but it’s still on the whiteboard and not something we are launching soon. The desktop requires a lot of attention to design and UI and we’d like to take the time to get it right.

So there you have it. Flipboard for Mac is not launching soon and is not coming to the Mac App Store on January 6th. Until then, keep munching on the awesome iPad version.

After being pulled a few months back do to an undisclosed (with Apple) easter egg, tap tap tap’s Camera+ has returned to the App Store. The app has several new filters and enhancments in addition to the usual bug fixes. The full list is after the break.

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Apple has just updated iPhoto to version 9.1.1 and the update includes some enhanced photo emailing features, bug fixes, and overall stability improvements. You can now email photos through apps besides the Mac’s included mail application and you can also use two new photo email themes: “Classic and Journal.”

This update adds new email options to iPhoto ’11. It also improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues. Specific fixes include:

• Adds a preference allowing photos to be emailed using an external email application
• Adds “Classic” and “Journal” themes to email.
• Photos attached to an email can now be sized to Small, Medium or Large
• Improves reliability when upgrading a library from an earlier version of iPhoto
• iPhoto now correctly preserves the sort order of Events after upgrading a library
• Event titles displayed in headers can now be edited in Photos view
• Addresses a problem that could cause duplicate photos to be added to a MobileMe album
• Scrolling overlay now correctly displays ratings when photos are sorted by rating
• Photos are now sorted correctly when a rating is changed and photos are sorted by rating
• Fixes a problem that could cause text formatting controls to become inaccessible when editing a calendar

The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto ’11.

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It’s not that app that lets you watch FiOS on your iPad but it’s an app that lets you change the channels, control your FiOS set-top-box, and move through the TV guide all from your iPad. Additionally, FiOS customers with DVRs can control their DVR and start recording shows from anywhere in the world. For the app to work you must fulfill the below requirments and the app is now free on the iPad App Store.

Requirements:
– A Verizon FiOS-provided router
– A My Verizon User ID and Password
– At least one Set-Top Box for Guide Data, Video on Demand Browsing and What’s Hot viewing
– A DVR for Remote DVR Functionality and Video on Demand Bookmarking
– An HD Set-Top Box for Remote Control functionality

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Even while it emerges Google’s Google TV plans seem to be foundering (FIRE SALE!), Apple has announced that its new Apple TV will ship its millionth unit later this week.

While many hope the A4 chip inside Apple TV might be enabled to run some apps one day, many also consider the Netflix support within Apple TV to be the big win for sales.

Press Release follows:
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So much for Thinking Different™: Looks like Apple may have joined Amazon, Banc of America, Paypal and other corporations which have evicted Wikileaks from their servers — the briefly-available Wikileaks app for iPhone and iPad has been kicked out of the App Store.

The Time person of the year public vote-winning Julian Assange-founded Wikileaks has attracted controversy with the leak of a series of US diplomatic cables which illustrate the seamier side of international diplomacy.
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David Frampton of Majic Jungle provided us a copy of his upcoming Chopper 2 for Mac and we’re here to preview it for you. At first glance: wow. The game is spectacular and is a huge step from Chopper 1 for Mac. The graphics in Chopper 2 for Mac are phenomenal and are 3D (you’ll see what I mean in the video above). The controls are simple to use and the game is easy for anyone to pick up on. In fact, if you’ve played Chopper 2 for iOS the game play will be very familiar.

If you’re new to the Chopper game series the concept is very simple. You are flying a helicopter through the skies, going through several obstacles in order to pick up people on the ground. Some of these obstacles include birds, buildings, and of course mercenaries, rockets, and planes shooting at you. The game is particularly fun and with multiple levels you should never get bored. Chopper 2 includes three skill levels (normal, hard, and harder) and within those are several individual lands and maps. Each level has three lands and within those lands are three different maps, and within those maps are tons of levels to play through…

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That’s right, Coleco the gaming powerhouse of my youth is back, (mostly in name) with a game for kids called 3 little pigs Pop-up adventure ($4.99, screenshots below).  My kid is testing it as soon as he wakes up tomorrow morning

In this initial book, we’ve created a new 3D engine/platform that we believe raises the bar for children’s interactivity when it comes to story books on this platform.

But can we get back to the old Coleco part of it?

Mitch Schussler, CIO of Coleco Entertainment Corporation wrote in to tell us about how they were getting the band back together and…

we’re getting close to releasing some of the classic remakes as well as a full product line to be introduced in the second quarter of next year.

I can’t even wait.  Mitch, you know where to send the redeem codes.
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The Huffington Post has had an iPad app for sometime and tonight they have released a new version, re-designed from the ground up. The new version is quite slick with access to all of the Huffington Post’s sections and a new “glide” feature. This feature lets you slide through the different posts and it sort of feels like the Twitter for iPad interface. The update is free and you can get it here on the App Store. More screenshots after the break.

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Last night we reported that Tapulous had launched Tap Tap Revenge 4 with several new features like a new design, 100 free tracks, and an arcade mode. Now, less than 24 hours since its launch, Tap Tap Revenge 4 is the number one free application on the iTunes App Store. Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem told TechCrunch that Tap Tap Revenge 4 is already seeing around 25,000 downloads an hour. If you still haven’t gotten your hands on Tap Tap Revenge 4 you can download it for free here.

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Erica Sadun has put together a new Mac application called AirFlick . To put it simply, AirFlick lets you watch any video stored on your Mac or any video from the internet that is compatible with the AppleTV/iTunes ecosystem (.mov, mp4, etc.). Simply launch the application (screenshot after the break) drag a file path from your Mac or an internet video URL. As soon as you hit the play button the video will start playing on your TV via the Apple TV.

The first time we tried it we got an error message but then we left the error window and tried again and it worked. AirFlick is a bombshell piece of software for your Mac and if you’re like me you will find it extremely useful. AirFlick sort of turns your Apple TV into a video web browser as you are no longer limited to the built in YouTube or Netflix player. You get way more now.

Sadun notes that AirFlick is “quite alpha” with 0.01 as its version number. AirFlick has worked as it should so far for us, and you can give it a try here too. A third party developer has proved that the Apple TV can act as a “data server” and as an internet browser to a point. So why is it taking Apple so long?

Update: Erica Sadun figured out how to get AVIs streaming too. Video after the break.

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Yet more fascinating action in the smartphone space with an unholy rumored combination between Nokia and Microsoft set to potentially change the structure of the market.

What’s happening?
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This is the world’s biggest iPhone and it is situated in the world famous St. pancras International station. It isn’t actually an iPhone, however, it is in fact a bank of 56 iPads all set up to work together in an iOS nod to signify the release of Lara Croft Guardian of Light (below) on the App Store.
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Electronic Arts set off an iApp price war last week when it discounted many of its games to just $0.99, sparking the release of Tap Tap Revenge 4 for free and a big games sale from other iOS heavyweight, Namco.

All the app makers are engaged in a stiff fight to populate the iTunes App Store top ten lists in time for Christmas — after all, Apple’s lists won’t be updated from December 23, so grabbing a good slot on those lists now is likely to translate into great sales opportunities as all those new iPads hit the store.
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The 4th generation of arguably the most popular iPhone music game has just hit the App Store: Tap Tap Revenge 4. For those not familiar, Tap Tap Revenge was around long before the App Store. It was the premier iPhone game on the jailbroken app market. Since then it brought in Tapulous over a million dollars a month and now Tapulous is owned by Disney. Going back to Tap Tap Revenge 4 the new, free app brings loads of improvements and new features.

First, the new version brings over 100 free tracks to the table. These include songs from popular artists/bands like Lady Gaga, Linkin Park, and My Chemical Romance. (List of several more popular artists in TTR4 is after the break.) TTR4 introduces a “like” button which when pushed displays an avatar showing who else likes the respective track. Tapulous has also done some iOS 4 housekeeping by adding both Game Center and Retina Display support.

Some new social features are now present such as the ability to share scores via Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail. Perhaps the most impressive feature in the new game is the “Arcade Mode.” This new mode presents new tapping obstacles which makes the game even more challenging and when coupled with the new up-to-the-minute global leader boards, the game should be all the more fun. Let us know how you like it all in the comments. Tap Tap Revenge 4 is now free on the iTunes App Store and you can check out some screenshots after the break.

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Facebook, who count 55,060,129 monthly active iOS app users, today updated their iPhone/iPod touch app with a few new features but mostly bug fixes, listed below:

– Improved reliability in chat and messages
– Improved notifications UI
– Fixed memory usage
– Fixed some crashes
– Walls you cannot post on no longer show the text field at the top
– Restore ability to post as a page that you admin
– Fixed group photos
– Various Places improvements

Is it silly to expect a iPad app at this point?

All 55 million of you, hit the App Store updates or head over here.

Screenies below…
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