Earlier today, Apple was forced to remove the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (not the iPhone 4S), and all 3G iPads from its online store in Germany. This injunction was short-lived as Apple appealed and the German court suspended the ban.

The company told Slashgear, "Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago." It also confirmed that "All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly."

According to FOSS Patents, The orignal removal was the result of a German court ruling in favor of Motorola that was handed down in early December. In this decision, the Mannheim Regional Court said Apple violated telecommunication patents owned by Motorola. Motorola had the option to enforce the ban by posting a 100 million euro bond and it appears that the company took this step earlier today.

[Via FOSS Patents]

Apple resumes sales of 3G iPhones and iPads in Germany originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The pocket version of Ticket to Ride by Days of Wonder is among the best board game adaptations for the iPhone, and it's just gotten better with asynchronous multiplayer support. Now you can start a game with friends through Game Center, and take turns back and forth across the Internet. The experience is similar to popular multiplayer games like Words with Friends and Hero Academy.

This free update also expands the game's local multiplayer mode, so that users on the same Bluetooth or Wi-Fi network can play across devices. Ticket to Ride for the iPhone and iPod touch is available for US$1.99 in the App Store, while the iPad version is priced at $6.99.

Days of Wonder notes that Ticket to Ride has been extremely popular. It has sold over 350,000 copies, and a new online game is begun every four seconds on average. The game is definitely excellent, and the success is well-deserved.

Ticket to Ride Pocket adds asynchronous multiplayer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Although they haven't exactly explained how school systems or parents are going to pay for iPads or other tablets for every student, the US government is pushing a new initiative to move from standard printed textbooks to digital textbooks within the next five years. While it's good to see that a focus on digital textbooks is finally at hand, it's going to take more than a press release, five years and a "playbook" to make the transition happen.

According to an AP news release, "Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday challenged schools and companies to get digital textbooks in students' hands within five years."

In an interview, Duncan asked, "Do we want kids walking around with 50-pound backpacks and every book in those backpacks costing 50, 60, 70 dollars and many of them being out of date? Or, do we want students walking around with a mobile device that has much more content than was even imaginable a couple years ago and can be constantly updated? I think it's a very simple choice."

To school systems that are battling drastically decreased budgets and trying to replace or repair crumbling infrastructure, it might not be such a "simple choice." Likewise, there doesn't appear to have been much (if any) thought on how parents or schools systems are going to replace equipment that is broken or lost by students, or how to pay for digital devices to be refreshed every three to five years.

Wednesday's announcement comes just two weeks after Apple's education event and the launch of iBooks textbooks. The company is perfectly placed, both in terms of the iPad hardware platform and iBooks Author creation tool, to benefit from a move to interactive and easily updated electronic textbooks.

The government released a 67-page "playbook" promoting the use of digital textbooks and offering guidance to school systems who want to make the move. At the current time, about US$8 billion is spent each year on traditional textbooks for K-12 school kids. With an Apple educational discount, that could pay for more than 17 million iPads each year. If Apple, as rumored, brings down the price of entry into the iPad market by selling the iPad 2 alongside a future model, more devices could make it into the hands of students across the nation.

On the other hand, switching to digital textbooks means more than just acquiring hardware and buying textbook apps. In many cases, the curriculum provided by a school district and even the methods used by instructors to teach students must change as well. The educational five-year plan is a noble goal; it's just not very realistic.

US government wants schools to embrace digital textbooks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Take that, Apple! Avid has just released an iPad iMovie competitor called Avid Studio. The US$4.99 app is a scaled-down version of Avid's pro video editing tools.

Avid Studio features a timeline and storyboard, plus some iPad-friendly gestures so you can scale images and videos. You can arrange your edits on the timeline for special effects like picture-in-picture.The app also offers 3D animations and transitions, and video tracks can be composited.

Avid Studio lets you export a project to the Avid Studio app for the PC via iCloud, and you can share your finished project via YouTube, Facebook or email. Videos not shot with the iPad camera can be imported with the iPad Camera Connection Kit.

While Avid's new iPad app is clearly a consumer tool and not a pro video editor, it does show some commitment from the company to Apple's platforms, and may serve as a 'gateway drug' for pros who are considering the Avid suite as an alternative to Final Cut Pro X. The initial poor reception for the release of Final Cut Pro X for the Mac last summer, which dropped many features and angered several professional customers, has provided an opening for alternative products.

Avid (and also Adobe, with its Premiere Pro product) stepped into the FCPX breach and offered discounts to FCPX users who wanted to switch to the pro products on the desktop. Avid's desktop suite runs only on a Windows PC and costs $169. Final Cut Pro X is $299 and requires an App Store-friendly version of Mac OS X.

Apple updated FCPX this week to bring back some features that were lost in the FCP7 to FCPX transition, but I think some video professionals and serious hobbyists feel the momentum is swinging away from Apple. [Award-winning editor Walter Murch isn't among the naysayers, at least not anymore. -Ed.]

Avid Studio for iPad will be $4.99 during a 30-day introductory period, and $8.00 after that. The app is a 30 MB download, and requires an iPad running iOS 5.0 or greater. Apple offers its own iOS version of iMovie for $4.99, which has been generally well reviewed.

Gallery: Avid Studio

Avid Studio takes iPad video editing to the next level originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last year, we looked at Doodlecast for kids from zinc Roe. It's an iPad app that lets your kids record themselves talking while they draw on the screen. The app records both the audio and the drawing and combines the two into a single video. My kids loved Doodlecast and continue to fill my iPad with narrated drawings. With Doodlecast Pro, the developers took this underlying technology and used it to create a consumer version of the app.

Similar to the kids version, Doodlecast Pro lets you simultaneously record both your voice and your drawings on the iPad screen. Instead of doodles, it's meant for creating basic presentations and mocking up images. I could easily see an interior designer mocking up a picture of a room or a landscaper drawing out rough plans for an outdoor project. It would also be perfect for teachers who can mark a problem wrong on a student's quiz and whip up a Doodlecast video that explains why the answer is incorrect.

Anyone with video editing experience will appreciate the simplicity and efficiency of Doodlecast Pro. The first time you launch the app, you're presented with an open slate to create a Doodlecast. There's a set of tools that let you draw, erase and use a pointer to single out objects on the screen. You can also swap out the plain background with one from your iPad's photo roll.

When you're ready, you can hit the record button and start your narration. You can pause the recording at any point, make changes and resume right where you left off. When you're done recording, you can save the file to your Photos, share it via email or upload it to YouTube.

The app makes it so easy to create and share a short video with images and audio. I can't imagine doing it manually with a standard video camera, a microphone and Final Cut Pro. It would take you an hour manually, ten minutes with Doodlecast Pro. It's also very flexible. You can use it to whip up a quick video to send to a co-worker or take time to do some planning and produce a presentation your could send to a client.

Doodlecast Pro just landed in the App Store for US$3.99. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Daily iPad App: Doodlecast Pro originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Flipboard added another feature to its popular social stream and news reading app that'll please international users. Announced earlier this week, the company will be sending out three new Content guides for readers in Australia, Canada and the UK and Ireland. Folks in those countries will soon receive news that's custom-selected for those regions. These areas will join China, France, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, which already have local recommendations.

If your iPad's or iPhone's region is set to one of the countries mentioned above, then you will automatically receive your local guide. To switch back to the original, un-filtered content, you'll have to set your device's country location to the United States. That's somewhat inconvenient, but Flipboard says it will soon let you choose your country from within the app.

Localized Flipboard Content guides available for UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I'm excited about this one -- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was one of the best mobile games on the year that didn't appear on iOS in 2011, but the wait is over: Though it's been on iOS in Japan for a little while, the game is finally coming to the App Store on this side of the world this evening. As of tomorrow, you'll be able to pick up Ghost Trick on your iPhone or iPad, no matter where you are. The game itself will be free, so you can play through the first two levels for no charge, and after that you can buy the rest of the content with an in-app purchase.

Ghost Trick is a fun one -- you play as a ghost detective who needs to solve crimes by inhabiting inanimate objects, like possessing phones to listen in on phone calls, or moving objects around to convince the living to move as well. It's a really great title that not a lot of people have picked up to play, so definitely give this one a look tomorrow when it's out.

Ghost Trick sneaks onto iOS tomorrow originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Think you have what it takes to be an air traffic controller? Before you're responsible for hundreds of lives, you should test your flight controlling skills with NASA's latest iOS app, Sector 33.

Sector 33 is a game similar to Flight Control, but a bit more realistic. You are a controller in charge of flights into SFO via Modesto, California. Your job is navigate the flights along their flight path and merge them into a single flight stream with the correct spacing. You can change the speed and the flight path for each plane to avoid collisions. The game follows standard flight rules, so you can't get too close. At the same time, you have to keep them close enough together so they hit their targets at the correct distance. It's harder than it sounds.

The game has several levels that let you control up to five planes at a time. The better and faster you fly, the more points you earn. You get points for each level you complete and points for different certification levels. To make things even more difficult, there are obstacles like thunderstorms that can get in your way.

The game play is much different from Flight Control. In Sector 33, things are much more controlled. There's a set path for the planes to follow and a set solution for each level. The game plays more like a puzzle than a free-form game like Flight Control which lets you fly planes in any direction you want. The graphics are basic and, though it's not an accurate representation, the game has the look and feel of a radar system.

If you're interested in planes and flying, you should check out Sector 33. It's a universal app that's available for free in the iOS Store.

Daily iPad App: Sector 33 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Smappsoft sought me out a few times at Macworld | iWorld this year, so I was glad to see what they've been up to. Last I saw the company, they were working on a puzzle game called Look Again, and since then they've released a few other titles, including Chinese 13 Card Poker and a version of Look Again for children called Look Again, Jr. That app trades animals for the random patterns of the first title, and the devs are finding out that it's getting "a little traction in the special needs market" at schools, as teachers tell them that kids with communication issues can easily understand the game and how to win it.

Smappsoft's latest game, an as-yet-unreleased app is called Pokertini, is more for adults with the tagline, "video poker with a twist." Yes, it's a very colorful video poker game. The guys behind Smappsoft have also released an app called Hold 'Em Helper, so it's clear they're fans of card gambling.

Pokertini seems like fun. It is a video poker game (which means you get a hand of cards and then can hold or discard once, trying to make the best hand you can) with three hands, and the basic idea is that you place one bet that can be split across three hands. You can change up your bet after the first cards have arrived, so if you think you'll be luckier on the top hand than the bottom one, you can move coins up there (across the touchscreen) in the hopes that you'll score big. Scoring is pretty much the same as Vegas odds, so it's even money for Jacks or higher, and then more payouts on up the scale.

The twist is that you can buy "twists" with your money that will influence the cards that arrive. For example, you can buy a twist that blocks low or high cards, or one that shakes up all of the hands. Every few hands you'll get a bonus round, where you're given a matrix of 3 by 5 cards, and just asked to make the best hands with them that you can in the time allotted.

All of that was still under development, I was told. The team isn't quite sure how the bonus round will appear, and they're still considering how to make a compelling part of the game.

There are also badges and achievements to earn. The game uses a freemium model. There are in-app purchases for more coins and money. Smappsoft says you'll never completely run out of money, though. If you do, the game will always grant you a little more to play with.

If the team can balance out the twists and even out the bonus round, it should be a fun take on video poker, and if you already enjoy that pasttime, you'll probably love it. Smappsoft says Pokertini should be out later this year, so we'll keep an eye out for it.

Pokertini from Smappsoft on display at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Just before I headed out of San Francisco at the end of Macworld | iWorld last week, I met up with a few of the guys from BearExtender, who make an impressive product that will boost the Wi-Fi signal coming into your Mac. The guys were in San Francisco to show off the BearExtender Mini, which will eventually replace the current product.

The reason it will replace the standard BearExtender (so named, by the way, because it was developed for dorms at the University of California Berkeley, where the network is in fact called AirBears) is that it's just better. The standard Bear Extender runs at 700 milliwatts, where the mini is about half the size of the original product, and runs at 1000 milliwatts.

Your MacBook typically receives Wi-Fi at a range of about 200-400 feet maximum. The BearExtender expands that to about 1500 feet, which is a sizable difference. That varies, of course, depending on what kind of building you're in and your line of sight to the core signal. The Bear guys gave me a demonstration using Macworld | iWorld's press Wi-Fi network, which they boosted from a 50% signal all the way up to 100%

The BearExtender Mini should be out sometime in February, and should run about the same price as the current model, or US$49.97.

I also asked the guys about a possible model for the iPad, but they said that because of Apple's restrictions on power usage from the iPad's docking port (likely because Apple wants to make sure battery life is as high as it can be), the BearExtender wouldn't be able to pull enough power to work well. But they had a solution ready to go anyway -- if you need to reach a signal on the iPad and have a Mac around, you can use the BearExtender on the Mac, and then share the connection over to the iPad.

Finally, the guys had one more product on offer. The BearExtender Mini will sell with an optional powered cable that will extend the product out another 10 feet away from whatever USB port you're plugging it into. The power is required in the cable to keep the signal from degrading over that last 10 feet, and the cable will also help as an auxiliary antenna, to grow the reach even farther. There will be an extra charge for the cable, but it's clear the BearExtender team is very serious about making Wi-Fi signals reach where they need to go. If you're in a position (the guys say they've heard from soldiers in Afghanistan, and researchers out in the field as well) where you need to reach as far as possible for a Wi-Fi signal, the BearExtender setup is definitely worth a look.

BearExtender turns its product mini at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I first met Liv Games' Orian Livnat at last year's Macworld, where he showed me a wild game called Legendary Wars that mashed up a number of different genres and ideas in a mix created by Livnat and his family and friends. At the time I thought the game was a really interesting idea, but even I didn't expect the kind of success Liv Games has seen. A year later, the company had multiple booths in the mobile app showcase section at Macworld | iWorld 2012. Even while also running the show during the day, the team was hard at work on releasing the followup to Legendary Wars, Monster Wars.

That game is out now, and as you might imagine from the title, it follows the other side of the story, that of the monsters from the original game. Just like Legendary Wars, the graphics are colorful and the animations are very well done. Livnat and his crew have really blown what was already a very broad idea out even further, adding more unit types, more abilities, more game modes to play around with, and lots more upgrades and add-ons to earn throughout the longer campaign. Fans will really love spotting all of the updates here; there are lots more "pets" running around during batle, for one thing, which Livnat says players really enjoyed in the first game. The option to actually control creatures like trolls, liches, and undead knights is intriging as well. Fans of the first game should definitely pick up Monster Wars, and at the launch price of just 99 cents, this much content is hard for anyone to turn down.

While Monster Wars is only Liv Games' second title, Livnat himself has quite a few projects underway, both as partnerships with other companies and as projects he's working on with friends. It sounds like he and his team are pretty run off their feet (he happily showed me pictures of the crew working late during Macworld to submit Monster Wars to the App Store), but he also says he's not interested in giving up the company to an acquisition.

Legendary Wars did bring offers, says Livnat, but for now, it sounds like he's more interested in making games that people are really enjoying. Monster Wars has only been on the App Store for a little while, and already the reviews are filling up with lots of satisfied players. Liv Games seems to be doing quite well on all of its development so far, and it'll be interesting to see what Livnat and his burgeoning studio comes up with next.

Liv Games releases Monster Wars on iOS at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Kanex is an accessories manufacturer that has traditionally built cables and connectors for Apple products. The company has recently brightened up its branding and is introducing some new products that are sure to grab some attention. I was able to take some photos of the new Kanex Sydnee iOS recharge station at Macworld | iWorld 2012 last week, and heard a fascinating story about the origins of the design of the Sydnee.

Gallery: Kanex Sydnee

First, a little bit of background about the Sydnee. It's designed to charge up to four iPads simultaneously. That means that it supplies the requisite 2.1 Amps of current to four individual USB ports. Sure, you can swap out some or all of those iPads with iPhones or iPod touches, but where the Sydnee really shines is in the area of charging multiple iPads at one time.

What's nice about the Sydnee is that it manages to be both functional and stylish at the same time. In terms of functionality, the Sydnee does an amazing job of holding three iPads at the same time while feeding power to them through included USB cables that are just the right length. The fourth iPad (or an iPhone) must sit on the table, uninvited to the party.

Now, about the style. As you can see from both the image at the top of this post and the gallery, the Sydnee uses a unique design that allows it to hold three iPads gracefully. There's a clear plastic piece in the center of the oblong "loop" that separates two of the iPads, while the third perches on the outside of the device.

If this design seems vaguely familiar, than you must be a fan of Disney Pixar's Wallo.E. The Kanex team told me that Sydnee's design was inspired by the Axiom, the huge BnL spacecraft that is inhabited by a "lost colony" from Earth. Whether that story is true or the team was pulling my leg, there is a resemblance, and the design is striking.

Sydnee's not available yet, but you can sign up for updates on availability. The recharging station is expected to retail for US$149 when it appears, and you'll be able to get it in either black or white. I just wish it had a Buy n Large logo sticker on the outside...

Kanex Sydnee recharging station traces design to an unusual source originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple achieved a quasi-victory today in the ongoing intellectual property battles with Samsung when an appeals court in Dusseldorf, Germany upheld Apple's requested preliminary ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The court's decision also covers the Galaxy Tab 8.9, but not the Galaxy Tab 10.1N -- the version of the tablet that Samsung tweaked slightly to get around its similarity to the iPad. A decision on the 10.1N is expected on February 9, 2012.

Why is this a partial victory for Apple? Well, the ban was upheld not on Apple's design rights, but a breach of German unfair competition laws. That weakens Apple's assertion that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 models blatantly copied iPad design features. In addition, this verdict is limited to Germany alone and does not apply to other European Union member states.

The Netherlands rejected a previous ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 just last week, and if the 10.1N and other lightly-modified tablets remain on the market, it indicates that competitors don't have to make a lot of modifications to iPad copies for them to stay on the market.

However, all is not lost for Apple. Samsung is losing its claims on 3G patents in Germany, and was also recently the target of an EU investigation regarding alleged abuse of those patents. This is the year that many of the worldwide patent lawsuits that Apple and Samsung are embroiled in should reach resolution in the courts.

Apple ban on original Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 stands in Germany originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I've found that iOS isn't the best platform (so to speak) for platformers. I love games like Mario and Sonic, where you drive a little character around, jumping between platforms and collecting goodies. The lack of physical buttons on Apple's touch screens (and let's face it: cheaper production values) make it hard to pull off a great platformer. Often times developers are forced to cut corners or really stretch to generate new ideas.

Not so with Paper Monsters (US$.0.99, universal). Crescent Moon's latest is a traditional platform game (complete with double jumps and warp pipes), and it plays that role perfectly. The little box-headed character can navigate the colorful and nicely-designed environments with skill thanks to some well-turned controls. The whole experience shines through the iOS platform right back to the classic days of 2D platforming.

There are some new tricks, too. At times, the action feels more like Little Big Planet than Mario's old adventures, with solid 3D graphics and some interesting twists, like playing in the background scenery.

Paper Monsters is a lot of fun, and there's plenty to keep you engaged through all 16 levels. It's available as a universal version right now for just 99 cents.

Daily iPad App: Paper Monsters originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Don Lee, CEO of Nomad Brush, was kind enough to meet with us for a few minutes on the floor of Macworld | iWorld 2012 last week to chat about his creation, which is one of the nicer brushes available for virtual painting on Apple's devices. Nomad's got a few different makes and models for various uses, but Lee says his goal for them is all the same: To provide a "good bridge between analog and digital painting." The brushes all do that -- they're solid brushes that respond well to the iPad's screen.

But what they don't do is what all brushes and styluses can't yet do, and that's invoke pressure sensitive information onto Apple's glass screen. Lee says that it's actually a choice on Apple's part. He says that the software can determine the size of a touch on the screen -- in other words, if your finger touches it only slightly, that's a smaller screen space than if your finger (or a capacitive brush) is completely pressed up against the glass. But Apple doesn't allow developers to take advantage of that information with their apps. "If they were to let that open," says Lee, he'd obviously be able to sell more useful brushes, but until then, brushes are basically finger substitutes, not the full tools they could be.

Now developers, being developers, have come up with lots of little tricks to get around this lack of pressure information. The app Zen Brush, which Lee says makes a nice example for his brushes, actually uses the speed of your finger swipe (along with "projected" virtual ink on the screen) to make a more realistic representation of how the brush would interact with an actual page.

Nomad doesn't have its own app, but Lee says the company "would love to talk to some developers" about possibly making an app built to work with its brushes. In the meantime, of course, they work just fine with almost any drawing app.

As for the brushes themselves, Lee says the biggest difference between them is basically just the size of the tips -- some are wider and better used at painting bigger strokes, and some are better for closeup work (only in the feeling, of course -- again, the size of the brush's contact on iOS' surface doesn't really matter, and all of the various brush settings have to be worked on in the actual software). But one thing Nomad is thinking about doing that customers have asked about is creating brushes with interchangeable tips, so that users can customize their handles with whatever brush they'd like to use.

There are a few different choices in terms of brush styli for the iPad and iPhone, but Nomad seems like a good option, and it was interesting to talk to Lee, who's actually an architect by trade. All of Nomad's brushes are available on its website now.

Nomad brushes with wide strokes at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

During Macworld | iWorld 2012 last week, I had the opportunity to meet with Denys Zhadanov of Readdle. If you're not familiar with Readdle's products, you might be new to the iOS world. The company has been around for four years and has sold over 3.5 million iOS apps, most of them used for reading and annotating PDF files.

The company's newest entry into this market should be hitting the App Store any day now. Called Remarks, the app will sell for US$4.99 and is used to open, edit, and then save and distribute PDF files. My favorite part of the demonstration was when Denys opened a magazine file, tapped several pages, and created a new PDF file with annotations within seconds. Remarks has some unique navigation tools for precisely locating text or handwritten annotations, and it can save in either regular (layered) or flattened PDF formats.

A short video showing off the impressive feature set of Remarks is embedded below.

Readdle previews Remarks iPad app at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Koss headphones have been around a long time. I remember doing some pro recording with them in the 70s, and I know they go back at least to the early 60s. The company isn't stuck in the past, though, so it has announced a new version of the popular Porta Pro headset. It's called the Porta Pro KTC, which stands for Koss Touch Control. It's aimed at all your iOS devices, and allows you to shuffle songs, adjust volume and make calls from a small controller built into the headphone cord.

The Porta Pro is an on-ear design, featuring a collapsible headband and a carrying case. Last time I listened to the Porta Pros I found the sound quite smooth and the headphones were very comfortable.

There is no price announced for the Porta Pros yet, but the current model without the controller retails for US$50.00. The KTC model is expected to hit stores in early Spring.

[via Engadget]

Koss adds iPhone remote to Porta Pro headphones originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Foursaken Media is one of the most interesting companies I got to meet at last week's Macworld | iWorld 2012. It's made up of four real-life brothers who come from different backgrounds (one of them was a math teacher, and with their Dad a former band director and Mom a CS major turned nurse, they all have various affinities for art and technology), and have decided to release apps on the wild world of the App Store. The company has released a few games already, including the popular Bug Heroes, and the brothers showed me two more titles, one just released and one upcoming.

Mad Chef is out on the App Store now -- it's a very colorful little arcade game that has you tossing knives at food ordered by customers as they appear. The graphics are fairly goofy, but they're a nice fit for the action anyway, as you can do things like accidentally hit customers (making them walk away) and earn money and powerups at various restaurants, from a greasy spoon diner all the way up to a high-end steakhouse.

The other title the brothers showed off at Macworld was called Sky Gnomes -- it's a game they're still working on that features little gnomes falling on a snowball through the sky, which the player needs to guide around obstacles and into powerups and bonuses. The game looks like fun, and Foursaken is even planning some interesting multiplayer elements -- they're aiming to use ghosting to provide asynchronous gameplay, so your friends could record a run through one of the game's courses, and then you'd see them on your screen as you played, even though they aren't running at the same time.

There will also be elimination-style courses, and as you race, you'll be able to wear up to three trinkets at a time to boost your stats and abilities. Sky Gnomes seems like a lot of fun -- the brothers haven't settled on whether it will be available for cheap or free (with of course in-app purchases available), but it should be available on the App Store soon.

Foursaken's brothers seem like an interesting crew, and their games over the past few years have shown a lot of progression. We'll keep an eye out for Sky Gnomes and let you know when it hits the App Store.

Foursaken Media's four brothers take on the App Store originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week at Macworld | iWorld 2012, the imaging company Epson had set up a large area on the second floor to show off its latest product, the MegaPlex Digital Dock Projector. Epson makes a number of imaging products, including printers and projectors, but this is its first project driven by an iOS device. It's a pretty standard portable projector (in fact, I'd argue that the image and speaker quality on the projector are a little below standard, unfortunately), but the kicker here is that there's an iOS dock connector on the back, so you can plug in your iPad or iPhone, and any app that allows you to send video out can be shown off on the screen.

There are two versions of the project for sale, priced at US$799 or $699, respectively. The difference is in the display. The higher-priced version will output 720p video at 2800 lumens, and the less expensive model does 540p video at 2200 lumens. There is a panel of standard video inputs on the side, including RCA, s-video, VGA, and HDMI, so you can plug just about anything else into the projector if you happen to not be using the dock.

But there's also a handle on the unit, so it's a (mostly) portable way to show movies or presentations directly from an iOS device. It does that well, despite a tradeoff for image quality. The projector itself doesn't have any audio out to hook up to an external speaker, and while you could just use the iOS device's audio jack, that solution seems less than elegant.

Still, it was kind of impressive to see the iPad's output up there on the big screen though Epson's box. If you've been looking into low cost projector solutions, and wouldn't mind have the option to get video right off of your iDevice, the MegaPlex might be what you're looking for.

Epson shows off the MegaPlex Digital Dock Projector at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

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Daily Update for January 30, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Avatron's Elliot Chase just shrugs when asked about Air Dictate, an app his company had to remove from the App Store after Apple discovered it made use of Siri that they didn't approve of. "There's no good news," he said while talking to us at Macworld | iWorld 2012. The main issue is over Air Dictate's interface. Instead of using the standard, tiny Siri button on the native keyboard, Avatron hid the keyboard and used its own button. Apple would rather it used the standard UI, however unfitting. "If we make some changes, they might put us back," says Chase.

But outside of that issue, Avatron is continuing to update its popular Air Sharing and Air Display apps. In fact, the gang was showing off Air Sharing's beautiful new PDF viewer in San Francisco last week. It features an iBooks-style page flip and a scrubber for quickly scanning a document's pages. Chase said that many users are reading PDFs with the app, and his company saw an opportunity to create a better PDF viewer. The next update, which should be out soon, will add Egnyte to the list of cloud services that Air Sharing is compatible with.

Avatron is also working on Air Display updates. An Android version is in development, as is a Mac update that will allow it to work on older versions of Mac OS X . The current version requires the latest version of the Mac OS, but Avatron will release a downloadable version on its website that will work with previous versions, so you can share a display screen with your iPad from nearly any OS X build. There's a beta available now, but the software should be finalized in the next month or so.

Air Dictate was certainly a setback (Avatron even had the software's picture marked out on its booth at Macworld as "not available"), but it sounds like Avatron is keeping busy nevertheless.

Avatron soldiers on with Air Sharing after removing Air Dictate originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you live in an area that gets warm rain in the summer or cold rain in the winter, then you'll want to check out the iPad sleeve from Flowfold. It's a basic sleeve that'll protect your iPad from the elements. It's made of recycled materials, which makes it friendly for the environment, too.

Design

The Flowfold case has a basic sleeve design with sailcloth on the outside and a soft inner liner made of recycled bottles. The outer sailcloth layer is made from leftover scraps that would otherwise be thrown away. For those that have never sen it, sailcloth is used to make professional racing sails and has a unique glossy, fibrous appearance. This sailcloth sleeve is different from any other case I have seen because the styling doesn't come from inks and coloring, but from the material itself.

Besides its unique appearance, sailcloth is also an extremely durable, water-resistant material. According to the manufacturer, it's made of Carbon Fiber, Kevlar, Pentex or Polyester matrixes sandwiched between Mylar films. The outer sailcloth layer gives the sleeve some strength, but it's not a rigid case. It's still soft and flexible.

The inside is a low-pile plush material made from recycled bottles. It gives the case some cushioning and the soft surface won't scratch the surface of your iPad. At the top of the sleeve is an inner Velcro tab that'll keep your iPad in the case and not on the floor. It's a solid closure that requires some force to open and won't open without warning.

The Flowfold is a handmade case and solidly made. If you look closely, you may notice the stitches are not always perfectly spaced like a machine, but it's a strong stitching that doesn't come apart easily. I like the handmade look because it means each case will be a little bit different from the others.

Size-wise, the sleeve is designed for the iPad, but it will fit will fit other similarly-sized tablets. I used it with my iPad 1, my iPad 2 and both the Touchpad and Xoom.

Functionality

The outstanding feature of the Flowfold sleeve is its outer sailcloth material. It gives you enough water protection that you can carry it in the rain or snow without concern. Be careful around deep puddles, though. The sleeve is water-resistant against surface moisture, but it's not a sealed case and won't protect your iPad if it takes a plunge.

Besides being water-resistant, the sailcloth won't rip or tear easily. I tried tugging at it and brushing it up against sharp corners and couldn't cause a split in the fabric. I'm sure if I took my Spyderco knife to it, I could tear it, but that's to be expected. Unless you work or play in an extremely rough environment, the sleeve will stand up to everyday wear and tear.

The Flowfold sleeve has a soft inner lining and thick stitching around the edges that provide protection from your average fall. It's not an Otterbox case that'll let you throw your iPad, but you can drop it without worrying about damage. It's a flexible sleeve, however, and won't protect your iPad from twisting forces or blunt impact. If you put your Flowfold-encased iPad in a backpack, you still have to be careful you don't bend it, twist it or step on it.

Conclusion

The Flowfold sleeve is excellent for the casual user who wants to carry their iPad without worrying about the weather. It gives you enough water protection that you can carry it in the rain and enough impact protection that you can drop it without concern. The sailcloth also gives the case a unique, rugged and outdoorsy look that's quite eye-catching. Best of all, it's made of recycled materials and is handcrafted in the state of Maine. The Flowfold iPad sleeve is available for $35 in a variety of colors from Flowfold's website.

Gallery: Flowfold iPad sleeve

Flowfold iPad sleeve: a water-resistant case with an eco-friendly footprint originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A total of about 1,400 iPads are heading to schools in Madison, Wisconsin during 2012, indirectly paid for by none other than Microsoft.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the school district is acquiring iPads as they are less expensive, easier to use, and more portable than the usual computers purchased for educational use. Bill Smojver, the director of technical services for the Madison School District, referred to Apple's recent educational announcements about iBooks Author, iBooks 2, and digital textbooks as a "significant development."

Deputy superintendent of schools Sue Abplanalp said that Madison administrators found that students using tablets were more engaged in the classroom, as evidenced by a demonstration they witnessed in the Chicago Public Schools.

The school district will get the iPads through a traditional Apple educational discount for about $479 each, with the final tab being paid for with part of a nearly US$80 million settlement between Microsoft and the state of Wisconsin. That 2009 settlement was the end result of a lawsuit that alleged that Microsoft cheated consumers by overpricing its software for years.

[via AppleInsider]

iPads for Madison, WI schools purchased with Microsoft lawsuit settlement funds originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Magic Window was one of the first apps on the App Store when the store launched. It is a simple idea, but wonderfully executed and now available for the Mac as well as iOS. Magic Window is time-lapse photography -- for iOS it serves as a relaxing "picture window" and on the Mac it can play on your desktop. Plus, by adding a projector (in the video below it is connected to an iPhone) you could have an enormous wall of a sunset slowly changing over time.

There's really a bit more to Magic Window than mere novelty, including weather (supporting micro-climates as you find here in San Francisco), sleep timers and an efficient use of your processor. Check out the demo below by Josh from Jetson Creative, the smart folks behind this wonderful app.

See beautiful time lapse images with Magic Window on your Mac, iPad or iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Blue Microphones are a favorite of ours around here at TUAW. We've used Blue's mics to record countless streams and podcasts, and most of our staffers have bought one or more with their own cash before. So it was nice to see them again at Macworld | iWorld 2012 in San Francisco this week, where PR Manager Hillary Money kindly showed us two new models due out later on this year.

The first is the Mikey Digital, which is an update to Blue's Mikey, the company's original mic built to plug in directly to the iPod touch's 30-pin connector. This model is for the iPhone. Apple slightly changed the protocol between the two devices when the Mikey was first introduced, so this version is designed to work specifically with the phone hardware rather than just the iPod. But that tweak isn't the only difference -- there's also a three-setting switch between low, medium, or high gain (and the switch is hooked up to three LEDs that will provide some indication of where you're setting it, which is definitely a helpful improvement). And the middle LED will flash as well when the mic gets distorted, so even if you're not listening during recording, you can see when things are too loud.

The other big update is that the 1/4" input on the outside of the mic now will also accept both line and instrument inputs, so you'll be able to just plug your electric guitar right into the mic, which is a nice bonus if you don't already have a solution for that. The Mikey Digital will retail for $99, and should be out later this spring.

The Spark Digital is a new mic that's designed specifically for the iPad. It's a version of one of the company's most popular studio mics that instead plugs directly into the iPad's dock connector, allowing you to record straight onto Garageband for iPad, or any other audio recording app (more on that in a second). The Spark also comes with a USB adapter, so you can also use it as a standard PC or Mac mic as well. It also has a gain control and a port for monitoring the audio off of a splitter, and there's a button called "Focus Control" that will change the mic's pickup two different ways, for closeup sound or wider recording.

The Spark is suspended by a cord inside a stand, which helps prevent vibrations from reaching the mic's sensitive equipment. We didn't get a chance to hear the output of either microphone, but Blue's microphones are always quality -- especially for the price they're available at, these mics are some of the best value for the money. The Spark will be available this spring as well for $199, and that includes all of the cables, as well as a six-month subscription to both Soundcloud and Gobbler, for storing and sharing audio.

Finally, we asked about Blue's iPhone app, Blue FiRe, and if it would ever arrive natively on the iPad. Money told us that while the app itself is still being supported by its developers, Blue's deal with them has ended, so it's no longer funding development on that app. Blue is apparently looking into possibly making a brand new official app, but Money says the result will probably be a long way off. "It's on our radar," she promised. In the meantime, these mics still work with any app that will record audio, including Apple's own Garageband, so there are still plenty of uses for Blue's products. Always good to see Blue and what they're putting out. We'll look forward to getting our hands on these later on this year.

Blue brings the Mikey Digital and Spark Digital to Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.