Recent Articles
ZAGG’s iPad-an-Hour Giveaway is almost here [Update: Now Live]
The second annual iPad-an-Hour Giveaway bonanza by ZAGG is back. Same as last year, 24 iPads (this time the iPad 4 16GB Wifi model) will be given away throughout Black Friday.
Starting at 12:00 am MST on Black Friday, we’ll be giving away an iPad 4 every hour. 24 iPad 4s over 24 hours. Each hour is a new opportunity to enter the giveaway. So yes, you need to go to the giveaway page each hour and enter.
Entering the giveaway will be simple. To enter, just submit your email address. For additional entries, you can share on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. A Facebook share is worth two additional entries, a Twitter share is worth one additional entry, and a Pinterest share is worth one additional entry.
You can get a reminder by texting ‘hour’ to 53535 and ZAGG will text you each hour to remind you to enter. The contest starts in a few hours, so if you’re feeling lucky then, head over to the ZAGG Contest page to submit your entries. Good luck!
The Mac Utility Bundle: 5 apps for $59 (including Parallels 8)
Been patiently waiting for a price drop on Parallels 8? Well you’re in luck, because it’s part of the latest Mac bundle to hit the web this Thanksgiving season. With the Mac Utility Bundle, you get 5 apps for $59 – which is 75% off the total retail price. They include: Parallels 8, Snagit, MacOptimizer, Rubbernet and VirusBarrier. Normally Parallels 8 sells for $80 and it’s arguably the best utility for running Windows right from within Mac OS. Snagit’s another app I use heavily for capturing screenshots for TMA and other projects (it can also do video capturing), and this alone retails for $50. You have 7 days to take advantage of this great Mac Utility bundle, so head over to the Stacksocial page for the complete details.
And if you missed it earlier, the ProductivityMac bundle (9 apps for $29) is still on.
Nokia’s HERE Maps app now available for iOS
Nokia has released their first iOS app, which it hopes will lure users away from the various mapping solutions on the platform. Called HERE Maps, it’s based off HTML 5 and offers several features that Apple’s own Maps app lacks. Most notable of these include turn-by-turn walking directions (strangely enough, not for driving directions), community maps (selected countries), the ability to save map areas for offline use, and public transportation. You can also sign up for a free Nokia account that lets you ‘Collect’ places, which can then be viewed at a later time on mobile devices and even the web.
A history of photography: from the first photo to Instagram [Infographic]
Photography sure has come a long way. From the first photo ever taken (which required an eight hour exposure) to the explosion of mobile photography, more and more users are relying on their cellphones to snap their pictures. The team behind Overgram (an app that lets its users add an assortment of text to their Instagram pics), have drummed up an infographic detailing its evolution. Some of the stats include: more than 3.5 trillion photos have been taken since the first photo, 300 million photos are uploaded to Facebook everyday and photos make up 42% of all posts on Tumblr. Check out the full breakdown filled with stats, fancy charts and the like after the break.
ORA turns your iPad into 8 Speaker Sound System
Watching movies on the iPad can be an enjoyable experience no doubt – just so long as you’re not relying on its terrible speakers. Even the ones on the iPad mini sound significantly better, thanks to the stereo speakers onboard. So how do you create the perfect accessory that makes the film sound great on-the-go AND not require you to carry around separate peripherals (i.e bluetooth speakers)? Enter ORA, a unique case that literally puts 8 speakers around your iPad, delivering 5 times the loudness you’re accustomed to hearing.
iOS Deals of the Day – Asphalt 7: Heat, Pitfall, Chimpact and more now Free
Asphalt 7: Heat for iPhone and iPad now Free
Looking for the latest app sales and deals for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad? Here’s our roundup today for the most recent freebies and price drops that are worth checking out. As always, they’re only good for a very limited time.
Read easier on iPad mini (while surfing the web) with these bookmarklets
Readability’s bookmarket lets you change font size, themes and margins
The iPad mini is a fantastic 7.9-inch tablet, though there’s no denying that there’s plenty of room for improvement when it comes the display. Factor in the smaller screen and only 163 PPI (pixels per inch), browsing the web on the mini with Safari can at times be trying. The easiest way of course is to simply double tab or pinch-and-zoom into any webpage, or better yet, tap the Reader button located in the url bar once the page has completely loaded, which then strips out everything save for the text, with the option to increase/decrease font size. But for those who like to tinker and tweak, there are other options out there that can get the job done too. More specifically, they’re bookmarklets that you can easily “install” on your mini (or any iDevice for that matter); one works very much like iOS’ Reader functionality, the other lets you change the font size right from the bookmarks toolbar.
Google putting finishing touches on iOS Maps app with turn-by-turn navigation
Good news for Google Maps advocates using iOS 6. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has been field testing their long rumoured iOS Maps app and putting on the “finishing touches” prior to submitting it to Apple’s stringent approval process.
Google has distributed a test version of its new mapping app that will work on Apple’s iPhones and iPads to some individuals outside the company, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Google has been putting the finishing touches on the app before submitting it for approval to the Apple iTunes store, this person said, though it is unclear exactly when that will happen.
Apple mini Wifi + Cellular now available in the US
Two weeks after the launch of the iPad mini, the Wifi + Cellular models (LTE) have finally arrived in the US. Both Sprint and AT&T have officially announced that the LTE minis are now available on their 4G networks and can be purchased at select retail stores. Meanwhile, Verizon‘s iPad mini product page has gone live on their website. It is also believed that cellular iPad minis are available in Apple Stores and Best Buy stores across the country. With a data plan, the mini will provide the added convenience of allowing its users to go online even if there isn’t Wifi available. Personally, I’ve always just owned the Wifi models; if I need internet access, I simply turn on hotspot sharing on my iPhone. But if your carrier charges for tethering however, an iPad mini 4G certainly makes more sense. Prices for the iPad mini Wifi + Cellular are as follows: 16GB ($459), 32GB ($559) and 64GB ($659).
If you missed my thoughts on the mini, you can check it out here.
Must have offline maps app: City Maps 2Go now free
Anyone who’s ever travelled to another country with their iPhones (and iPads) have no doubt looked up the App Store for some offline maps solution. With carriers charging an arm and a leg for data roaming fees, it’s no wonder that there are countless travel apps with offline map capabilities. The best I’ve come across so far is City Maps 2Go, which also happens to have gone free today (was $1.99). Using Map data and POI from OpenStreetMap, the app lets you separately download 7,800 maps from all over the globe – all neatly sorted by cities, counties and provinces.
