Top 5 iPhone and iPad Apps to Use During Commercials

Twitter (free) – Check your Twitter feed and catch up with your social media conversation. Another great thing to do is search for the show you are watching and see what other viewers are saying.



IMDB (free) – Find out more about the show, actors or other people related to your show. IMDB also has showtimes and TV show listings so you can plan your TV viewing for the rest of the night or week or look for a movie to watch so you don’t have to sit at home and watch TV tomorrow night.







Instagram (free) – If you like photos, you will like Instagram. A short commercial break is jus the right amount of time to check out the latest pictures from those you follow. Instagram is kind of like Twitter for photo enthusiasts. Plus the pictures you take can be doctored to look pretty cool with all the filters included. You can select a photo from your camera roll and make it look cool and post it just in time for the show to come back on.iOS Only for now.







IntoNow – This app watches TV with you. It will listen to the audio of the program and offer information about the TV show you are watching. Keep it on between the commercials and then look at the content during the commercials. You can also share your thoughts about the show on Facebook and Twitter from within the app.



Bumpy Road ($2.99) - “A love story on wheels!” That is what the developers call this horizontal scroller. Drive through the environment and change the road by pushing with your finger. The couple in the car is going for a romantic ride and you are tasked with safely getting them through their trip and collecting memories. It can be fun and addictive. If this game doesn’t suit you, pick another one that doesn’t last for a long time. Short quick games are best for commercial distractions. Long games will end up distracting you from the show, not just the commercials. iOS only

iPhone, iPad and iPod touch latest applications

New apps for iPad only

• Alan Mascord Design Associates has introduced Mascord Living Spaces 1.0, their new magazine app for Apple’s revolutionary iPad device. Mascord Living Spaces includes feature articles, slideshows, video, and 360 degree revolving renderings for new home designs. The app, available for free download, also includes an easy to use menu system featuring interactive table of contents, page thumbnails, and a story view.


• Pixite LLC has introduced PhotoFresh 1.0.1, their Facebook sharing app for iPad. PhotoFresh offers a new way to view, upload, and share Facebook photos and videos. PhotoFresh focuses on the users’ photos and videos, which are often the most interesting content on someones Facebook page. PhotoFresh includes stand-out features such as navigation, photo caching, and slideshow options. Users can pan, zoom, and quickly sift through all their media using the intuitive navigation.


• Cyril Godefroy has announced Meta Editor 3.0, an update to his popular metadata editor for iPad devices. Professional photographers will find all the tools they need to quickly mass-edit the meta information of IPTC fields directly on their iPad before sending pictures to an agency by ftp, uploading to Flickr, or sharing with their PC later. More useful, powerful and easy to use, version 3.0 takes advantage of all the power of the iPad 1 and the iPad 2.


• Polar Bear Farm has introduced Air Forms 1.0, their most powerful database tool for iPad devices. Built from the ground up specifically for Apple’s iOS platform, Air Forms enables businesses and individuals to quickly create native looking and feeling, interactive interfaces into their data, without writing a line of code. Air Forms serves up an amazingly powerful web app, called Air Forms Builder, for creating and modifying your database solutions right from your computer.

New accessories

• While many people are excited to get their hands on the new white iPhone 4, many are also wondering how to pay for it. For existing iPhone users, the $499 can be a high price to pay, but NextWorth, a leader in consumer electronics upgrades and trade-ins, is offering high trade-in values for black iPhone 4 models to help subsidize the cost.

Via http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/may-9-2011-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch-new-releases/

iPhone, iPad and iPod touch new releases

New iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps

• Doodle Kart Multiplay has driven into the iTunes App Store. Doodle Kart is a Doodle style top down driving game. The unique racer is a very different driving experience on iOS, featuring stationary-related weapons to fire at your opponents during the several cups and championships users can make their way through. For some special items, you can even enlarge your car to run over the other cars.


• Coconut Island Studio contributes their in-game ad slot to serve Japan Red Cross’s earthquake donation advertisement for free. What they are going to do is to serve the Japan Red Cross’s Earthquake Donation advertisement for free for a whole week in their most popular iPhone casual game iDragPaper Free. To do that they will give up all their advertisement revenue during their charitable activity of iDragPaper Free which serves 200,000 impressions daily.


• Felix Mo has introduced Locational 1.0, his new location aware and sharing app for iOS. Locational allows users to manage all of their locational information and have it presented to them through an easy-to-use and beautiful interface. Users can obtain and share detailed information on their current location, such as the full address, the coordinates, the heading and direction, the speed at which they are traveling at, as well as the altitude of their location.


• iZooLu LLC has announced Ring Reminder 2.0, their best selling silent mode alarm for iOS. Ring Reminder has 10 slots to create a variety of custom timer alarms when one must put the iPhone in silent mode. Start the timer and it will vibrate after your meeting, church or lunch time. Version 2.0 includes a face lift to Ring Reminder with a new theme and a Nag Feature which checks the state of the ring switch and continues to remind you to turn the iPhone back to ring mode.


• iGotIt Games has introduced Colorflys SD 1.0, a visually pleasing butterfly capture experience for Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices. The goal of capturing butterflies is simple, but the experience surrounding the goal is what creates something unique for the iOS platform. Perfect for kids and family, the game will challenge players memory, dexterity and ability to recognize opportunity.


• Brisk Mobile is hosting a contest for all creative minds. Your design could be featured in their next Drake’s Tower update. Are you interested in designing and creating mobile applications? Create and illustrate a weapon/contraption that can be added to their recent game, Drake’s Tower. The submissions will be judged and the best weapon/contraption will be featured in the next update for Drake’s Tower. Submissions will be accepted now through the 1st of June 2011.


• Paul Solt has announced Wallpaper Evolution 1.0.1 for iOS, a new App designed to showcase original abstract and psychedelic wallpapers in addition to personal photos. Wallpaper Evolution enables the next generation of photo interaction and wallpaper discovery applications. The App features a wooden coffee table where images slide onto the table for multi-touch interaction. Users can tap, flick, zoom, and rotate the images in any configuration.


• Heidi Wittlinger & Shape Minds have developed a bedtime app for the Apple iPhone: Nighty Night! 1.1. The book is read by the well-known actor Alistair Findlay. The elaborate design, an animated mix of photos and drawn elements, comes from Heidi Wittlinger.  Heidi was nominated for an Oscar for her short film in 2002. After the iPad version topped US book charts in the App Store also the iPhone version also went straight to Number 1 in the iPhone book charts.


• Retina-X Studios, LLC has announced Mobile Spy LIVE Control Panel for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices.. Using this groundbreaking mobile surveillance technology, users can visually monitor their child or employee’s smartphone instantaneously. Mobile Spy runs in total stealth mode and no mentions of the program are shown inside the phone. The new LIVE Control Panel is part of a broader release of Mobile Spy’s latest version 5.0.


• Gormaya has announced Substitutions 2.0, an update to their popular cooking app for iOS devices. Substitutions features a simple list of substitution tables that are very handy when cooking. Easily view tables of Baking & Cooking, Dairy, Gluten-Free, Seafood & Meat, and much more. Now with nearly 400 substitutions, version 2.0 has been enhanced with customer requested features, including the new index with additional substitutions, as well as adds an index of all substitutions.


• Velocomp LLP has announced that the iBike Dash CC (Cycling Computer) and new iBike Phone Booth Bicycle Mount are now available at all Apple retail stores, starting today.


• Kima Ventures-backed YellowBrck has announced the launch of a new social network for iPhone that enables parents to stay in touch while earning coupons and discounts from local and online retailers by “checking-in” to day-to-day parenting activities like mealtime, laundry and playtime. Designed specifically for the growing demographic of connected on-the-go parents, YellowBrck allows parents to share and exchange ideas or activities, tips on parenting and even discover the latest family hot-spots and events, nationwide.

read more at http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/may-9-2011-iphone-ipad-and-ipod-touch-new-releases/

Real Racing 2 for iPad Includes Output For HDTV

Real Racing 2 is a game for the Apple iPad that is coming out soon and the game developer has announced that it will have HDTV output. This means that you will be able to output what you see on your iPad to your HD flat screen without the “lettbox” look or having to rescale anything. FireMint, which is the game developer, says it’s the first iOS app to take advantage of the custom HDTV output. The user experience will be much better and more fun as the game is produced to the HDTV while the iPad will hold the map of the racetrack.

The game is typically played using the iPad as the controller. The iPad’s touch screen and motion controls help to achieve the popular game play users like and with the addition of accelerometer and gyroscope sensors, the iPad 2 should give the user an even more “real feel” game play experience.

Apple hasn’t really even gotten into the console gaming wars, but with the iPad’s ability to output onto an external display, especially in HD, Apple will be seen as an enemy in the gaming industry for sure. Apple iPad apps and games will be released more often now that the iPad 2 has the ability to produce real gaming experiences.

Over the last couple months, reports have been popping up regarding the increase in revenue and demand for games available on WiiWare, Steam desktop gaming and Xbox Live Arcade. With reports like that it makes Apple’s iOS a significant gaming platform.

Via

Time Warner iPad TV App Draws Interest -- and Lawsuits

As technology evolves, two things inevitably happen: 1) Newusage patterns emerge, and 2) Lawsuits get filed by players with either a vested interest in the status quo or a desire to cashin. (Also see: How many iPad 2s did Apple sell in debut? ) Such is the case with Time Warner's free new iPad application designed to allow subscribers of the cable provider to live-stream 32 channels onto their tablet devices in their homes. So popular was the app when it debuted last week that Time Warner temporarily had to reduce the number of available channels by about half to ease the burden on its servers. Variety's Andrew Wallenstein reports : Time Warner Cable is facing litigation from at least one of Hollywood's majors in a matter of days over its iPad app that transmits live TV channels withina subscriber's home, according to a programming executive with knowledge of the situation. "I think it's just days away," saidthe source, who added that TimeWarner Cable is no longer in discussions with programmers."If we allow this without litigation, everyone will do it tomorrow. If we litigate, we have a chance to win." "If we litigate, we have a chance to win." Besides being a copyright violation of Microsoft'scorporate slogan, that sentence misses the larger point: The convergence of media platforms cannot be stopped. If something can be streamed to a device, it will be. Does anyone really think a lawsuit is going to force the genie back in the bottle? Indeed, as Variety reports, Cablevision is preparing an iPad app "that goes a step further than Time Warner by making a subscriber's entire channel package -- including broadcast networks, VOD and content stored on DVR -- available on the app." Wow. Cablevision may as well call it the "Television Programmers Attorney Employment App," because that one's going to draw litigation like porn stars to a Charlie Sheen coke party. The programmers claim the TimeWarner iPad app violate their contracts with the cable provider, which they say restricts Time Warner's broadcast rights to "cable television." But Melinda Witmer, chief programming officer for Time Warner Cable, insisted to the Wall Street Journal that the company is legally allowed to transmit TV channels to any device in the home, provided thesignals are routed through Time Warner's network and equipment, rather than the"open Internet." In other words, a Time Warner subscriber wouldn't be able to sit in his local coffee shop and watch Larrythe Cable Guy's new show on TheHistory Channel (and even if he could, the shame and ridicule would be too much to bear). The WSJ quotes Witmer: "We don't define in our contractswhat a viewing device is, because technology has always been evolving," she said. "I don'tknow what a TV is anymore. It's kind of an anachronistic term." It's far more likely that the pending lawsuits are less about stopping the inevitable and more about forcing Time Warnerto pay programmers larger subscription fees.

via http://www.pcworld.com/article/223447/time_warner_ipad_tv_app_draws_interest_and_lawsuits.html

Apple iPad 2 official release date in India may be announced in a couple of weeks

Apple fanatics from India have been keeping their fingers crossed with hopes that the Cupertino giant is putting an end to its “shoddy treatment of the Indian market”. Things seem to be getting better as reports suggest that Apple may announce the release date of iPad 2 in India “in just about a couple of weeks.”

Indian tech blog Silicon India describes the country as “a dumping ground for leftover products by Apple, be it the iPhone or the iPad” after Apple partners are said to have expressed unhappiness about how the original iPad was launched in the country 10 long months after its US release. Similarly, there is still no sign of an official launch of the iPhone 4 in India, which was released in June of last year. India’s leading telecom operators Airtel and Vodafone have previously announced that they would bring the smartphone to India in September-October 2010 but until today, nothing has been officially announced yet.

The iPad 2 has already been launched in the US, and will be launched in several other countries on March 25 with India still missing from the list. Apple has not yet confirmed any release date, but an unnamed senior manager at a leading Apple partner has informally revealed that the company is working on a launch date to be announced in just two weeks during a meeting held in New Delhi last week. The source added, “iPad 2 launch figured prominently at the meeting and most partners were urging Apple’s management to intimate them about the launch in advance so that they can draw up sales strategies.”

The India launch of the iPad 2 seems even more feasible now because Apple has been promoting the iPad 2 on their Indian website, which the company never did for the original iPad. Likewise, there have been rumors going around that Apple will be launching the iPhone 4 in India “within a month” with the state-owned telecommunications company BSNL as the exclusive carrier.

Nevertheless, given the mature mobile phone industry in India, currently at 752 Million customers with over 40 million subscribed to mobile Internet, it might be about time that Apple identifies the south-east Asian country as a solid market for its products.

Via Apple iPad 2 official release date in India may be announced in a couple of weeks