Software : Siri to get international maps and local search in 2012 |
- Siri to get international maps and local search in 2012
- Updated: Top 200 best iPad apps 2011
- Apple iTunes 10.5 released
- Hands on: Facebook for iPad review
- Facebook for iPad finally launched
- Apple hits 250 million iOS device sales
- New Hotmail declares war on 'greymail'
- Microsoft IE blog reveals growing Chrome competition
- Exclusive: First screenshots of BBM for Android leak
- Firefox 8 now available in beta
| Siri to get international maps and local search in 2012 Posted:  Eagle-eyed FAQ readers have spotted that "additional countries" will get maps and local search integration in the iPhone 4S's Siri app in 2012. If you got your hands on the iPhone 4S in the UK today, you may have been a touch disappointed with its personal assistant app, Siri. The voice-controlled app isn't able to provide UK customers with local business information or maps to nearby places, resulting in a whole lot of frustrating "I'm sorry, I can't answer that" action. Siri, why don't you love me?As Apple noted in its keynote announcing the handset and its HAL-like assistant, the current version of Siri is a beta, and its Siri FAQs note that "Maps and local search support will be available in additional countries in 2012". It's no skin off iPhone 4 and earlier users' noses, however, as Siri is only available on iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S. |
| Updated: Top 200 best iPad apps 2011 Posted:  Top 200 best iPad appsIf you've just bought yourself a new iPad, you're going to want to start downloading the best apps straight away. It's the Apps that really set iOS apart from other platforms - there are far more apps available for the iPad than any other tablet. So which which ones are worth your cash? And which are the best free apps? Luckily for you we've tested thousands of the best iPad apps so that you don't have to. So read on for our best-in-class apps for each major category, followed by some more specific lists of the best free and paid for apps and games. .
Best iPad app: BooksApp name: Kindle Why list a free e-book reader as the top pick when Apple's own iBook is included? Ask anyone who owns a Kindle - with this free Kindle app, you can download every book and magazine you have ever purchased for free and read them on the iPad. .
Best iPad app: BusinessApp name: QuickOffice Pro HD Apple's iWork apps have been praised for their look and feel, but many actually prefer Quickoffice Pro HD. It dispenses with Pages', Numbers' and Keynote's visual clutter to present a clean, professional interface, while beating Apple to the cut by already fully integrating cloud synchronisation courtesy of Google Docs. .
Best iPad app: EducationApp name: Star Walk - 5 Stars Astronomy Guide Even if astronomy's not your thing, you can't fail to be impressed by Star Walk. Point it at the sky, and using the iPad's digital compass you'll see a virtual starscape on your screen. It gets even better when you start move around - you'll see that the view pans with you, highlighting what constellations you should be able to make out. .
Best iPad app: EntertainmentApp name: AVPlayerHD While iOS is packed with useful features, itdoesn't offer native support for many popular video formats, and this is where the AVPlayerHD app comes into play. It supports all the biggies - XVID, AVI, WMV, RMVB, H.264 and MKV - and offers compatibility with external subtitle file formats such as SMI, SRT and TXT. .
Best iPad app: FinanceApp name: Accounts Accounts is an easy to use application to replace your paper checkbook. You can schedule transactions, create recurring payees list, transfer funds, reconcile, export data, view reports, graphs, and much more. .
Best iPad app: GamesApp name: Plants vs. Zombies HD A mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home. Defend it with an arsenal of 49 zombie-zapping plants that will slow down, confuse and mulchify all 26 types of zombies before they reach your door. .
Best iPad app: LifestyleApp name: Jamie's Recipes Rather than having ahefty one-off price, the new Jamie's Recipes is free, but contains only a 10-recipe sample pack - you have to buy more packs as In-App Purchases of around £1.49. We're loving the attention to detail - for example, ingredients can be added to a shopping list, which you can email to yourself or a loved one to pick up on the way home. .
Best iPad app: MusicApp name: Garageband GarageBand turns your iPad into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play pianos, organs, guitars, drums, and basses on your iPad. They sound and play like their counterparts, but let you do things you could never do on a real instrument. .
Best iPad app: NavigationApp name: Navfree GPS UK & ROI Navfree turns your iPad into a fill-blown satnav device, offering turn-by-turn directions, voice and on-screen instructions, offline map use and address search and live search via Google and Microsoft Bing, among many other features. And it's completely free. .
Best iPad app: NewsApp name: Reeder for iPad While some hold up Pulse as the best way to access RSS feeds - stripped-down, automatically refreshed website content that you usually subscribe to for free - it's a little too lightweight for us. It's fine if you only have a dozen or so feeds coming in, but if you follow a lot more than that, Reeder is the app for you. .
Best iPad app: Photo & VideoApp name: Filterstorm If there's an iOS app that comes close to offering the kind of editing facilities that are available in a Mac OS X or Windows application, then it's this one, Filterstorm. For starters, it can import and process images in raw format. Add to that a host of editing tools, such as curves manipulation, colour correction, noise reduction, sharpening and vignetting, and you can see already that there's plenty here for photographers to get excited about - and it doesn't stop there. .
Best iPad app: ProductivityApp name: Noteshelf You can create multiple notebooks, and stack and arrange them on a shelf. Each notebook has a default paper style - lined, squared, and more - but you can mix paper types in one book; yay! Better still, you can import your own templates. There's no handwriting recognition, and the option to type as well as hand-write would be nice, but even so: superb. .
Best iPad app: ReferenceApp name: WolframAlpha Find out how much vitamin C is in a bowl of ice cream. Learn what European country has the fourth largest population of children. Compute solutions to difficult trig and calculus problems. Balance complex chemical equations. Discover what is overhead as you gaze up at the stars. Finally crack that crossword puzzle. Whoever you are and whatever you do, Wolfram Alpha delivers insight and understanding into any facet of your life. .
Best iPad app: Social NetworkingApp name: Facebook It may sound like stating the obvious, but this is clearly designed for the iPad from the ground up. It does more than just take advantage of the big screen and gesture recognition: other iPad features including the cameras and location services have been thoughtfully integrated as well. .
Best iPad app: SportApp name: Sky Go There's only one way to watch Sky Sports on your iOS device, and that's using the brand new Sky Go app. It replaces the much-maligned Mobile TV app, which had the cheek to demand you pay money for it, even if you were already paying a monthly fee for Sky TV and Sky Player. Providing you're a Sky Sports subscriber, you have access to all 4 Sky Sports channels, as well as ESPN, Sky One and more. .
Best iPad app: TravelApp name: Google Earth If, like us, you were amazed by the desktop version of Google Earth when you first used it, you'll love the iOS version. The iPad's Multi-Touch interface is the perfect way to navigate the planet, allowing you to fluidly roll from one place to the next, pinching and swiping your way from one amazing place to the next. .
Best iPad app: UtilitiesApp name: Dolphin Browser HD Dolphin has a tough task to prove that it has enough killer features to persuade users to switch from Safari. It covers the basics well, but where Apple's browser leaves gaping holes, Dolphin dives straight in with a wealth of extras. Top 50 best free iPad appsMany great free iPhone apps cost 59p or more in their iPad incarnations, and the quality level of what's still free is often ropey. But among the dross lie rare gems - iPad apps that are so good you can't believe they're still free. Of those we unearthed, here are our favourites. Read: Top 50 best free iPad apps Top 40 best paid-for iPad appsWe worked our way through the App Store and furiously tested a huge (digital) pile of apps, before coming up with our 40 best paid-for iPad apps. Read: Top 40 best paid-for iPad apps Top 40 best free iPad gamesThe App Store offers plenty of iPad gaming goodness for the (unintentional or otherwise) skinflint. Our pick of the 30 best free iPad games are below. Read: Top 30 best free iPad games 30 best iPad games worth paying forWith the iPad, the larger screen and extra clout from Apple's A4 chip creates a gaming experience markedly superior compared to that on the iPhone, and already there are plenty of fantastic titles for the system. Here are our current top 30 paid-for iPad games. Read: 30 best iPad games worth paying for 20 best iPad 2 appsIf you've been fortunate enough to get your hands on a new iPad 2, you'll know that it's a very powerful piece of kit. But what apps should you get to show it at its best? Read: 20 best iPad 2 apps
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| Posted:  Apple has released its biggest iTunes update in quite some time. iTunes 10.5 brings access to iTunes in the Cloud, which stores all of the music, TV shows and apps you've purchased and makes them available to re-download on other Apple devices at no extra cost. It'll also facilitate automatic downloads, which will mean any purchase you make on any of your iTunes-enabled devices can automatically be downloaded to the others. It is also the first version of iTunes to offer wireless syncing with iOS 5, meaning you'll no longer have to physically plug your iPhone or iPad into your computer to transfer content. Any devices on the same Wi-Fi network will be able to sync when iOS 5 is launched on Wednesday. That functionality will also extend to over-the-air software updates. No iTunes Match accessiTunes 10.5 doesn't yet allow users to sign up for Apple's iTunes Match subscription service, which will scan your entire music library and replace tracks with high quality files from Apple. It'll cost $24.99 in the US, but Apple has yet to agree deals with UK record companies to bring iTunes Match to the UK. Those deals are not expected to until spring 2012 at the earliest. That service is expected to launch stateside in the next few weeks. If you want to upgrade your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to iOS 5 you'll need iTunes 10.5 so we'd recommend you download the 100MB+ file now in order to save yourself a little time on Wednesday. |
| Hands on: Facebook for iPad review Posted:  Facebook for iPadThe Facebook iPad app has been a long time coming, but it's landed with a bang roughly a week after Apple's iPhone 4S launch event. Since the launch of the first iPad in 2010, there hasn't been an official Facebook app for Apple's tablet – users have had the choice between using the web version or choosing one of the many third-party apps that tap into the popular social network, such as Friend.ly or MyPad+. We got a glimpse of what was to come when the app was leaked in July, the code for the iPad edition hidden inside the iPhone version. But the cat is now officially out of the bag, so read on for a first look at the main features. As expected, there's a single Universal app for both devices, with the iPhone version having had various updates too. It may sound like stating the obvious, but this is clearly designed for the iPad from the ground up. It does more than just take advantage of the big screen and gesture recognition: other iPad features including the cameras and location services have been thoughtfully integrated as well. It works happily in portrait and landscape orientations. Down the left-hand side is the main navigation bar, which you can show or hide at the touch of a button or with a quick swipe to the side, a bit like moving columns around in Twitter's iPad app. It has chunky and easy to press buttons to take you to the various parts of the app. At the top is a search bar, to help you find friends, events and more quickly. The main content appears on the right, while along the top bar you've got quick links to friend requests, messages and notifications, just like on the website. The main event - the news feed - looks much like it does on the web version. The familiar buttons to share photos, your status and to check in are across the top, and your friends' updates below. You've got the usual ability to comment on or Like anything there. Tapping through to read others' comments brings up an additional column on the right-hand side. Sitting proudly at the top of the sidebar is your name, which takes you to your profile page. Tapping through gives you a bar down the left-hand side where you can get to your wall, information, photos and friends list, while your own posts and activity appear on the right-hand side. Your list of friends appears with big thumbnail images of their profile pictures with names below. Like in many iOS apps, there's an A-Z scroll bar down the right-hand side you can tap on to jump to a particular part of the list. Taking advantage of the iPad's wide screen, if you tap through to Messages from the left-hand bar, conversations appear as a two-column view, with the sender's name on the left and sent and received messages in chronological order on the right. Alternatively, tapping the Messages button in the top bar brings down a pop-up menu from the top that gives you quick access to Messages, without the need to leave whatever page you're viewing. In landscape orientation, a quick swipe from right to left brings up the Chat bar next to your News Feed, where friends who are online appear. The Share button at the top enables you to sign in or out. Tap the name of an online friend to bring up a chat window, which looks like the iOS Messages interface, but done in Facebook's style and colours. When chatting, a QWERTY keyboard comes up underneath your News Feed, so you can chat and keep up with friends' news and updates at the same time. As well as enabling you to upload existing photos and videos on your iPad to Facebook, you can shoot new ones with your iPad's camera and share these with your friends. Browsing photos feels like you're using the iPad's own Photos app, with each album appearing as a stack of images you can tap through to. To show off the snaps, you can enlarge them to fullscreen size and swipe through them, or use the slider on the thumbnail bar at the bottom to browse. And because it supports AirPlay, you can even play videos on other AirPlay-enabled kit, such as the AppleTV or a Mac running AirServer. Like on the iPhone, you can check in using Facebook Places. Remember that the Wi-Fi-only iPad doesn't have a GPS, so the accuracy of your own location will be determined by how many wireless networks there are around you. You can also view your friends' check-ins on a map using the Nearby system, leaving a comment if you wish. This way, you can quickly check who's in the same area as you at any time. Gaming on Facebook has been taken to a new level by enabling you to play your favourite titles in fullscreen, making the whole experience feel more immersive. And because Apps appear in the left-hand bar, they're never more than a tap away. |
| Facebook for iPad finally launched Posted:  The long-awaited Facebook for iPad app has finally been unleashed, the social networking giant has revealed. The free app, which has been in the works for well over a year and was revealed earlier this summer is finally ready to go, according to Facebook. Facebook for iPad now arrives boasting a slick, new iPad-centric user experience with tabbed navigation, allowing users to slide between profiles and menus, much like the Twitter iPad app. Photo albums have also been overhauled, with hi-res, screen-filling shots that Facebook says are "easy to flick through, just like a real photo album." Multi-touch gestures also allow users to zoom in on photos, maps and other content. Gaming on the goOther new features include gaming on the go and simpler, drop-down messaging functionality. Facebook says the changes are also being reflected in the company's iPhone app. "Many of you have been asking about Facebook for iPad," said Facebook engineer Leon Dubinsky. "Today, it's finally here. With the iPad app, you get the full Facebook experience, right at your fingertips. It's a fun, colorful way to keep up with friends, share photos, chat and more." "Facebook on the iPad feels fun," he added. "Photos really shine on the iPad. They're bigger and easy to flip through, like a real photo album. It's like having a slideshow with all your friends and memories, wherever you go." No sign just yetFacebook for iPad has been beset by delays with CTO Brett Taylor explaining in an interview with the New York Times that "it just wasn't ready yet." Last month the app's chief developer revealed that he had quit Facebook for Google as a result of Facebook's unwillingness to launch the iPad app that he said had been complete for months. To add a little more drama, the app has not yet appeared in the App Store. Presumably it takes a while to appear in Apple's listings. We'll let you know when it lands. UPDATE: Facebook for iPad has landed on the App Store for your downloading pleasure |
| Apple hits 250 million iOS device sales Posted:  Apple has sold over 250 million iOS devices worldwide, the company announced at the iPhone 4S launch today. That's a quarter of a billion iPod Touches, iPhones and iPads in people's pockets and bags around the world. As well as the iOS sale-a-thon, Apple announced that its App Store is also going great guns – no surprise there – with over 500 thousand apps now available, with 140,000 of those made for the iPad. AppgasmWe just can't get enough of those handy applications, it seems, having clocked up over 18 billion downloads – and still going strong with 1 billion more downloaded every month. It was good news on the Mac front too. Apple bragged that Mac OS X Lion has been downloaded over 6 million times since it was released in July 2011. "For the first time we've offered Mac OS as a digital download," said Tim Cook, Apple CEO, speaking at tonight's iPhone launch. "The results are staggering." BullishHe went on to talk bullishly about the MacBook Air, saying that "Our customers love it, and our competitors are trying to copy it. The Air is just a portion of our entire lineup of Macs, which are the best we've ever shipped." Speaking of which, he couldn't help but brag about how well the whole Mac line is doing, claiming that, "The Mac outgrew the PC market by almost 6x. This is incredible!" It is impressive - and a nice spot of Jobsian hyperbole there, we note. |
| New Hotmail declares war on 'greymail' Posted:  Microsoft has launched a new version of Hotmail, with the software giant declaring war on what it calls 'greymail'. Cloud-based email is becoming increasingly popular and there is now major competition from the likes of Google's Gmail for a market traditionally dominated by Hotmail. Mindful of that, Microsoft's latest update brings smart newsletter filtering, categories and advanced folder management, scheduled cleanup, a new flagging system and instant actions when you hover a mouse over a mail item. Spam plus"In previous posts on our blog, we talked about how we've reduced true spam in the Inbox to under three per cent using SmartScreen filtering," blogged Dick Craddock, group program manager, Hotmail. "But we realised that getting rid of true spam wasn't enough, because 75% of the email people reported as spam are really legitimate newsletters, offers, or notifications that you don't want any more. "We call this unwanted email graymail, and we're excited to announce five powerful tools to help our customers take control of their inbox, get rid of graymail, and keep track of the important mail in their inbox." The primary tool in this is smart newsletter filtering, which allows users to highlight and delete newsletters with a single click or unsubscribe completely, while categories and folder management, along with 'flags done right', are all about organising your inbox. Scheduled anything tends to be a bit of a pain, but new Hotmail brings a cleanup that allows you to get rid of emails of a certain age whilst the interesting looking instant actions are buttons that allow you to delete, flag or sweep with one click. |
| Microsoft IE blog reveals growing Chrome competition Posted:  Microsoft has showcased Net Applications data for its Windows 7 operating system that suggests that Google's Chrome browser is only three per cent behind IE9 in terms of usage on the operating system. The US software giant is obviously focusing on the US figures that give IE9 a 31 per cent share, but the worldwide figures for Windows 7 users paint a much more balanced picture. On that, IE9 is still in the lead with a 22.1 per cent share, but Google's rival Chrome browser has 18.1 per cent of browser usage, and Firefox a not inconsiderable 15.7 per cent. Bear in mind the fact that this is Windows 7 data – meaning that OS X and mobile platform users, as well as XP, Vista and Linux, are excluded. Viable alternativeWindows 7 has a clear screen allowing people to set their default browser so Microsoft will be pleased that IE9 is performing on its own merits, but presumably concerned that such a big percentage see Chrome as a viable alternative. "Internet Explorer 9 continues its growth this month as more and more people are switching to the latest version of IE," Microsoft's director of Internet Explorer marketing Roger Capriotti blogged. "As of the end of September, IE9 now holds 31% share on Windows 7 in the US. Worldwide, IE9 is 22% of all usage share on Windows 7." Capriotti also talks about the decline in market share for the decrepit IE6, expressing his delight that people are beginning to upgrade to modern browsers. "Another great trend is the sharp drop of IE6 as more people move towards modern browsers," wrote Carptiotti. "IE6 has now dropped to 9% usage share worldwide in September (and if you remove China's figures, IE6 only represents 3.5% usage share worldwide)." |
| Exclusive: First screenshots of BBM for Android leak Posted:  The darling of the teenage BlackBerry-toting masses, BlackBerry Messenger, is coming to Android - and we have what we're told are the first screenshots of BBM for Android for your delectation. Until now, there hasn't been much meat to the rumour that RIM is bringing out Messenger apps for Android and iOS, but these photos apparently come by way of a RIM employee who tells us that the app is in the final stages of testing, with BBM for Android launching by 2012. Update: We might have been had here, people - as commenter Benjymous points out, one of the images was likely taken from RIM's BlackBerry Dev Blog. The screenshots show the BBM icon on an Android menu screen and a contact profile page from the beta version of the app.The icon looks a little squat to us, but it's not a final version of the software so it's possible that this is just a placeholder for now.
The contact profile page is not exactly a looker, but it offers all the details you'd expect - messaging and contact book icons at the bottom of the page and the contact's name, picture, PIN and availability status shown.
We can't be sure, but we'd imagine there's a threaded conversation style page also available when you get into the nitty gritty of the messaging service - and presumably you can message friends on BlackBerries as well as other BBM for Android users. There isn't a great deal of solid information to be gleaned from the images, but our source also tells us that the app works well with Android's push notifications. The images give no clues as to whether RIM's recent upgrades to the messaging service, like BBM Music and in-app chat integration, will be included as part of the launch version of the app, unfortunately. BBMakIt's no secret that RIM has been beefing up BlackBerry Messenger, particularly since Apple announced that iOS 5 will bring its own private messaging app, iMessage, to the iPhone. As well as BBM for Android, we expect to see BBM for iOS launching at some point too – although, with iMessage on the horizon, who knows if the app will get through Apple's App Store approval. As far as the screengrabs go, there's no real way for us to verify them until BBM for Android launches so it's possible that someone is giving our leg a good yank - but with the app almost certainly in development, we're cautiously optimistic about the whole thing being legit. Thanks anon! |
| Firefox 8 now available in beta Posted:  Mozilla has announced the availability of Firefox Beta 8, insisting that the latest version of its browser will make 'browsing more convenient'. Mozilla's browser is now facing huge competition from Google Chrome, after years of fighting against Microsoft's Internet Explorer. And the latest version of Firefox will be a key release in terms of keeping hold of its audience share and competing with its rivals. Secure and innovativeThe beta "adds features and user interface elements that make browsing easier and tools that help developers build more secure and innovative Web experiences," according to Mozilla. That includes Twitter's arrival as a default search option, restoring tabs on demand – which allows users to opt only to refresh tabs when they are selected – and animated tab movement. Also on the update list is enhanced control of add-ons, WebSockets updates, HTML5 native right click menu and the integration of HTML5 media elements. You can download the beta version from http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2011/09/30/firefoxbeta8/ |
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