Apple

• Sprint to offer $100 towards iPhone 4S upon trade-in -1622 seconds ago The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  

  

  Sprint wants customers to buy the iPhone 4S and is offering a US$100 credit for the 4S to anyone who brings in an older iPhone as a trade. Details of this trade-in offer was published by TechnoBuffalo, who received it from a trusted source. This offer is supposedly available to both new and existing customers who agree to a new two-year contract and will last until June 30.

  Sprint to offer $100 towards iPhone 4S upon trade-in originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
  

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• 25. It's All Coming Back to Me Now (Glee Cast Version) - Glee Cast 18 seconds ago iTunes Top 25 Songs
  It's All Coming Back to Me Now (Glee Cast Version) by Glee Cast from the album It's All Coming Back to Me Now (Glee Cast Version) - Single
• Infinity Blade: Dungeons gameplay revealed 3 minutes ago The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  

  

  Our friends at Joystiq have procured the first gameplay footage of Epic's followup to the popular Infinity Blade series, called Infinity Blade: Dungeons, and you can get a look at it below. As you can see, it's set in the same world as the first two games, but features a completely different take on gameplay, using gestures to fight baddies from a top-down view rather than a fixed camera.

  There are also some interesting crafting mechanics, like rubbing out imperfections on a blade you're making, or tapping dents in metal to clear them off. Infinity Blade: Dungeons was announced at the iPad 3 Apple event, and is supposed to be out later on this year.

  Infinity Blade: Dungeons gameplay revealed originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
  

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• Review: iRig MIX is the perfect iOS mixer 7 hours ago The Apple Core
  The iRig MIX is the perfect companion to all the music and DJ apps for iOS and it even allows you to mix and blend from a single iOS device.
  
  
• iRig Mix out now, impresses with size and features 15 hours ago The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  

  

  IK Multimedia's iRig Mix mixer has finally arrived in stores, and it's just as impressive now as it was back when we saw it in action at CES this year. The mixer is sturdy and impressively small, and it has hookups for two different sources, including two iOS devices or any other stereo input source, as well as an extra mic/instrument input. Those sounds can then be mixed together, balanced, or tweaked with EQ, and sent out to a headphone jack on the bottom, and a stereo RCA output on the top. In short, this is a great full-featured mixer for mixing together sounds from almost anywhere.

  The biggest bonus here, however, is that the mixer also works with IK's apps on the App Store, so downloading DJ Rig or any of the other apps will sound extra nice coming through this thing. And there's an X-Sync feature built in to the mixer that works with the DJ app to beatmix for you, making for super simple DJing: Just start up the apps on your iOS devices, turn X-Sync on, and the mixer will beatmatch automatically.

  The whole kit is very impressive, and even if you just need a mixer for occasional audio use (unrelated to your iOS devices), it would probably work great. Plus, it's out now for just $99, and good luck finding an equivalent professional mixer at that price.

  iRig Mix out now, impresses with size and features originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
  

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• Daily iPad App: Feed Me Oil HD 16 hours ago The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  

  

  Chillingo's Feed Me Oil was released a little while ago, and it's a solid game that didn't get a ton of press when it first dropped. The reason for that is probably because it's somewhat similar to Where's My Water, in that you're trying to get a fluid simulation into a certain place on the screen by tweaking physics-enabled objects in the world. But while Where's My Water was all about digging, Feed Me Oil is much more about creation -- you place objects like platforms and wheels in the world to try and get the "black gold" flowing where you need it to go.

  Like pretty much all of Chillingo's other titles, there is lots of content here to play through: Lots of levels and puzzles with an increasing number of objects to use and move around to your heart's content. And while the game is on the iPhone as well, it's much better on the iPad -- the graphics are bigger and the objects are easier to manipulate in the game's space. Feed Me Oil is an excellent game, and especially because it's on sale today for completely free. Check it out.

  Daily iPad App: Feed Me Oil HD originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
  

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• Verizon: You can keep unlimited ? if you buy your own phone 16 hours ago The Apple Blog
  Verizon Wireless apparently isn?t done talking about its controversial plan to phase out "grandfathered" unlimited data plans, issuing a statement Thursday explaining the new policy. What it boils down to is this: You can keep unlimited, but don?t expect Verizon to subsidize your device.
• PopCap finally releases Bejeweled HD on iPad 17 hours ago The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  

  

  Bejeweled is probably the most popular mobile game out there, but for some reason, PopCap has never actually released it officially on the iPad. It's been out on the iPhone before, and of course you could play it on Apple's tablet, but it has never run natively. Until now, that is -- PopCap has finally released Bejeweled HD, which means you can now play the grandaddy of gem matching games in full Retina Display style.

  The game is now $3.99, and it's got special modes like Diamond Mine and Butterflies, four special gems to put together, and all of the usual extras that we've seen in Bejeweled games before. If you think the price is high, PopCap has sales on its titles pretty often, so we may eventually see it drop, but keep in mind this is an iPad title, and PopCap usually tries to keep those up as long as possible.

  PopCap finally releases Bejeweled HD on iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
  

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• Daily Update for May 17, 2012 17 hours ago The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  

  

  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.

  You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

  
  

  No Flash? Click here to listen.

  Subscribe via RSS

  Daily Update for May 17, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
  

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• Beepocalypse: How Apple could improve multi-device reminders 18 hours ago The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
  

  Today, beloved leader Victor pointed me to this write-up over at Tidbits. Although Joe Kissel's experience with quite so many devices (nine, I believe) falls a bit into the extremes of iOS/OS X use, the problem of dealing with distributed alarms is a real one: a single reminder can set off alerts all over the home or office. Surely, there's got to be a better way to focus alert attention.

  Victor asked if I could brainstorm some geek solutions up that might help coordinate reminders with multi-device deployment (I won't even try to figure out "how to deal with bosses who remind you about too much stuff with shared calendars"). The idea is to let users choose reminder strategies across several devices: Macs, iPads, iPhones, etc.

  The strategy brought up by Kissel was to add "do not disturb" buttons and slight time offsets to alerts. The opt-in would allow you to disable alerts either per-device or per-Apple ID. The offsets would allow users to respond to a dialog, allowing them to accept the reminder and disable triggers on other devices. The only slight problem with the time offsets approach is determining which device gets priority.

  You can imagine being in bed, exhausted, sleepy and hearing a slightly long symphony of beeps that finally arrives at the iPhone on your bedside. Being able to prioritize a device (e.g. "always alert this iPhone first") would certainly help.

  I also started thinking about activity -- and, specifically, giving priority to any device experiencing touches and mouse and key interaction (e.g. "always alert active devices first"). An active use pattern generally links to a human presence -- the likely target of a reminder. It's an easy way to connect alert reception to an audience.

  Devices could trigger in order of most recent use, with the reminder ending once a user taps an acknowledge key. In the worst case, the reminder lasts 9 times longer than it did originally, but in the best case, only the most active device is triggered. Per Apple ID, of course. Your partner's devices would have its own alert chain.

  But that doesn't take location into account . If your devices are idle but in distributed locations, say one at home, and one at work, which takes priority? Perhaps you'd want both to ring because there's no a priori knowledge of your location. Or maybe you'd want it to alert at work first and then home (e.g. "prioritize work").

  And at home? If you have a device downstairs and another upstairs, they may seem to be at the same location-to-detection algorithms, but you certainly would want to be reminded of lunch no matter which floor you're on. At the same time, you'd think devices could potentially figure out they're clustered together.

  What if Apple, in addition to slight time delays, could listen to hear alerts from triggers they know would happen on a related device in their Apple ID family (e.g. "listen for duplicate alerts")?

  You might be able to skip the active "Okay I get it" button then. Devices could actively suppress extra alerts by listening for ones in their vicinity. The problem again, would be if two Apple IDs were linked to similar reminders but didn't share calendars explicitly.

  For this, Apple could build in a "coordinate my alerts with..." option and harmony would once again reign in the land of the multi-device family.

  Beepocalypse: How Apple could improve multi-device reminders originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 May 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
  

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