Apple : Apple's new iMac gets teardown, has oddly-shaped logic board

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• Apple's new iMac gets teardown, has oddly-shaped logic board
• Updated: 60 best free iPhone games on the planet
• Upswing in parents naming children Apple, Mac and Siri
• iTunes 11 adds camera-enabled gift card redemption
• Updated: Apple's iTunes 11 now available for download
• Updated: 70 best free iPad apps 2012
• OS X 10.8.3 beta contains AMD Radeon 7000 drivers, likely for new Mac Pro

Apple's new iMac gets teardown, has oddly-shaped logic board Posted: Apple's latest desktop only went on sale today, but it's already had the teardown treatment, courtesy of a Japanese blog. Kodawarisan posted a whole host of snaps of the iMac's internals. Rather than the usual rectangular logic board, the new iMac's has a part cut out at the bottom to help it fit inside the super slim chassis. So it seems every measure was taken to keep the desktop as thin as possible. Most of the components are under plastic compartments to keep them separate from the screen. But it's a very tidy interior, which isn't surprising given how little space there is to play with. Two sizes Apple announced the new iMac last month. The 21.5-inch model is available now, and is the one taken apart here. The 27-inch model will ship in two to three weeks, according to the Apple site. Both measure just 5mm thin at their slimmest parts. The 21.5-inch version sports a screen resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels, while the 27-incher packs 2,560x1,440. Four USB 3.0 ports come as standard, as do three Thunderbolt ports. The only downside seems to be the lack of optical drive. And they're not cheap either. But at least now you can see exactly what you're paying for. Via CNET

Updated: 60 best free iPhone games on the planet Posted: Best free iPhone and iPod touch games: 1-25 It's safe to say that Apple's given the gaming industry a square kick in the tender regions. Despite their bluster, dismissing Apple in every way possible, Sony and Nintendo are both clearly concerned by the meteoric rise of iPod touch and iPhone as handheld gaming devices. Although great games are the driving force behind the success of Apple gaming, low prices have also helped. Most 'premium' titles cost six quid or less, and many developers end up in a race to 69p, thereby providing games that'd cost 20 quid on a rival platform for the price of a Kit-Kat. But what if you've spent the last of your cash on your shiny Apple object of desire? Can you get great games for nothing at all, or is the 'free' section of the App Store best ignored? The answer is, of course, both, and the trick is finding the gems amongst the dross. What follows is our pick of the bunch - our top 60 free iPod touch and iPhone games. 1. Dropship This wonderful ngmoco title used to cost a few quid, but Dropship is now free and is one of the App Store's biggest bargains. The game is a modern take on Gravitar or Thrust, with your ship battling gravity and shooting gun emplacements while searching complex vector-based cave formations for marooned allies. The 'touch anywhere' dual-thumb controls take some getting used to, but the game feels fluid and exciting once they're mastered. 2. Dr. Awesome Plus Another ngmoco game, Dr. Awesome uses a hateful forced Plus+ account sign-up, but get past that and you find a compulsive title that smashes together ancient arcade classic Qix and surgery game Trauma Centre. Dr. Awesome's gameplay centres around removing viruses by tilting your device to 'cut out' infections. Gameplay is fast and furious and, oddly, your Address Book contacts are used for patient names, so you can always choose to sacrifice your high score and off your boss in the virtual world. 3. Flood-It! 2 Flood-It! 2 meets the rules of great puzzlers: keep things simple, but make the game so challenging that your brains start to dribble out of your ears. In Flood-It!, you tap colours to 'flood' the board from the top-left, aiming to make the entire board one colour using a limited number of taps. This release offers additional modes over the original Flood-It! (timers, obstacles, finishing with a defined colour), and offers schemes for colour-blind players. 4. Sol Free Solitaire Although it's essentially a chunk of Solebon Solitaire (£1.19), Sol Free Solitaire is nonetheless a stunning example of a standalone solitaire game. From the moment you first launch the game, the level of polish and attention to detail is obvious. In all of the six included games, the graphics are clean and clear, the controls are intuitive and responsive, and the built-in help is informative. 5. Cube Runner The accelerometers in Apple handhelds have driven development of myriad tilt-based racing games, but tilt controls can be finicky. Cube Runner, however, feels just right as you pilot your craft left and right through cube-littered landscapes, aiming to survive for as long as possible. The game doesn't look like much, but it plays well, and longevity is extended by Cube Runner enabling you to create and download new levels. 6. Spider: Hornet Smash Tiger Style's Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor is an App Store classic, combining arcade adventuring and platforming action, with you playing the role of a roaming arachnid. Hornet Smash includes a level from that game, but its main draw is the frenetic arcade minigame. Still controlling our eight-legged hero, the aim is to fend off attacks by swarms of angry hornets, while weaving webs and munching tasty lacewings for health boosts. Three environments are included in this compelling and innovative title. 7. Real Racing GTi Firemint's Real Racing is one of the best racing games for Apple handhelds, but it's also demanding, requiring a lot of time investment. Real Racing GTi dispenses with much of the depth, but retains its parent's fun gameplay, user-friendly controls and great graphics. Three modes are on offer - time trial, quick race, and a cup championship over three tracks—ensuring this game is the best free arcade racer on the App Store. 8. MazeFinger Plus Again, the forced Plus+ account sign-up is hateful, but it's worth persevering to get to this addictive game, where you "unleash the awesome power of your finger," according to the App Store blurb. The aim is to drag your finger from the start to the finish of each simple maze. The problem is you're against the clock and obstacles litter your path. Great graphics and 200 levels of compelling gameplay ensure you'll be glued to your screen. 9. Dactyl Almost entirely lacking in depth, Dactyl is nonetheless one of the most furiously addictive games on the App Store. A gloriously demented Whack-A-Mole-style effort, Dactyl merely tasks you with tapping red bombs to stop them exploding. Almost immediately, though, red bombs arrive thick and fast, forcing you to keep track and tap them in order, to avoid the inevitable 'game over'. 10. Trace Trace is a sweet, inventive platform game which has you navigating hand-drawn obstacles to reach the star-shaped exit. The twist is that you can draw and erase your own platforms, to assist your progress. With an emphasis on time-based scores rather than lives and the ability to skip levels, Trace is very much a 'casual' platform game, but it's none the worse because of it. 11. Solomon's Keep Reminiscent of a twin-stick shooter mashed into an RPG with a really big wand, Solomon's Keep has your wizard battle endless hordes of supernatural foes, with the help of your thumbs and some in-game spells. It's a bit like an overhead Diablo, or, if you're getting on a bit, a powered-up Gauntlet. 12. Buganoids Buganoids resembles a NES game where the author decided to mash together random bits from various arcade classics. You patrol tiny planets, blasting 'across' them to kill nasty bugs. The gameplay's reminiscent of Gyruss and Tempest, and although the controls sometimes feel a little off, the game's always fun for a quick blast. 13. You Cruise by Mazda MX-5 This game has no right to be any good. You Cruise is essentially an advert for Mazda, and ad-oriented games are usually rubbish and play it safe. But here you get to hurtle round eight courses in a sports car, with the gameplay resembling a mini Sega Rally. It also helps that the controls—auto-acceleration, steering at each edge, and a brake pedal at each corner - are some of the best of any iOS racer. 14. Bankshot One for pool sharks, Bankshot tasks you with sending your orb to a goal by bouncing it off of at least one wall. A few different modes are on offer in this attractive neon-style game, but the best is Blitz, a high-octane time-attack affair. 15. 10 Pin Shuffle (Bowling) Lite A curious mix of ten-pin bowling, shuffleboard and poker, 10 Pin Shuffle proves surprisingly addictive. You get two cards for each strike and one for each spare, and whoever has the best hand at the end of the tenth frame wins. 16. Lux Touch Quickfire Risk clone Lux Touch isn't exactly a champion in the smarts department - the AI's pretty easy to outfox - but it's perfect ten-minute fodder for Risk fanatics. The graphics are clear, the board is responsive, and the game's also universal, for if you want to install it on your iPad. 17. iCopter Classic There are loads of one-thumb copter games on the App Store, and while this isn't the best (Super Turbo Action Pig and Pudge fight for that honour), iCopter Classic is without doubt the finest free variant. It's also fast and responsive as you go about helping your helicopter (or—in the unlockable themes—bee, submarine, spaceship or football) survive for as long as possible without smashing into something. 18. Cell Splat So you think you're observant? Cell Splat will test that claim to the limit. The game distills 'match' games to their purest form. You get a target shape or colour, and, against the clock, must tap all matching items in the well. Quite why this frantic, great-looking, fun, addictive game is free, we don't know; we just suggest you download it immediately. 19. InvaderR Like Cell Splat, InvaderR streamlines and hones a popular game, but this time it's Space Invaders. Like Taito's original, aliens are out to get you, but in InvaderR you have it tough. While the invaders are content to stay out of reach, it's 'game over' the second you're hit by a projectile. This turns InvaderR into a compelling and exciting score-attack game. 20. Whacksy Taxi Although it looks like a 1980s racer, Whacksy Taxi also has much in common with platform games. You belt along absurdly straight highways, avoiding traffic by dodging or leaping it. Variety's added by power-ups, new background graphics when you reach a stage's end, and several bonus zones that also provide extra challenge. 21. Volkswagen Think Blue Challenge Most racing games are about tearing round corners at high speed, your only concern being to not smash into things. Think Blue turns the genre on its head, providing you with limited fuel. The game becomes a unique and intriguing survival-based challenge as you try to eke out an extra few metres each go. 22. Hoggy Hoggy resembles VVVVVV smashed into Nintendo's Kirby, combining platforming and puzzles. The game tasks you with grabbing fruit within jars that are peppered around a maze. Complete a jar and you get a key; with a certain number of keys, new maze areas open up. Although occasionally a mite frustrating, Hoggy's a great-looking, fun and innovative freebie. 23. Bam Bam Dash Imagine Monster Dash with the cast of The Flintstones and you've got Bam Bam Dash. Your auto-running caveman has to avoid plummeting to his death and being eaten by things with sharp teeth. Nice graphics and helpful dinosaurs you can ride add extra flavour to the game. 24. Alice in the Secret Castle If brutally difficult old-school games are your thing, Alice in the Secret Castle will appeal. The game boasts 64 rooms of NES-style hell, with a curious game mechanic that hides walls when you hold the 'A' button. Progression therefore becomes a case of mastering taxing and relentless (but rewarding) puzzle-oriented platforming. 25. Fairway Solitaire In this game, golf met solitaire and they decided to elope while leaving Mr. Puzzle Game to fill the void. What's left is an entertaining bout of higher-or-lower, draped over a loose framework of golf scores, with a crazed gopher attempting to scupper everything. You get a few courses for free with Fairway Solitaire and can use IAP to buy more. Best free iPhone and iPod touch games: 26-60 26. PicoPicoGames It's clear you'll never see Nintendo games on iOS, but PicoPicoGames is the next best thing: a collection of tiny, addictive NES-like minigames. Frankly, we'd happily pay for scrolling shooter GunDiver and the Denki Blocks-like Puzzle; that they're free and joined by several other great games is astonishing. 27. Escape from NOM Another entry in the physics game genre, Escape from NOM differentiates itself by lacking a price-tag but nonetheless rolling in nice graphics and gameplay. The aim is to drop 'Alan' and use obstacles and bumpers to get him safely into coloured goo at the bottom of the screen. However, he must be the same colour as said goo when he reaches it and avoid hungry NOMs. 28. Need For Cheese This tilt-based avoid 'em up has you steering clear of cats (especially red ones that home in on you), munching cheese and grabbing power-ups to smash evil cats off the screen. Need For Cheese is simple, but a first-rate quickfire highscore game that rivals Bit Pilot for best-in-class. 29. Froggy Jump At first, Froggy Jump seems like Doodle Jump, starring a frog. That's probably because Froggy Jump pretty much is Doodle Jump, starring a frog. However, its character, unique items, themes and lack of price-tag makes it worth a download, especially if you're a fan of vertically scrolling platform games. 30. StarDunk Another game showing that simplicity often works wonders on mobile titles, SlamDunk is a straightforward side-on basketball game. The time-attack nature of the title gives it oomph, though, and there's also the option for online competition against players worldwide. 31. Trainyard Express Developer Matt Rix is bonkers. That's the only explanation for Trainyard Express, which isn't so much a demo version of the wonderful Trainyard as an entirely separate edition. The mechanics are great: draw tracks to lead trains to like-coloured stations, combining or crossing them on the way, as necessary. It starts out easy, but soon hurts your brain, and the 60 puzzles aren't repeated in the paid-for version. Bargain. 32. Putt Golf Anyone can whack a ball with a stick - real skill comes from putting. (Cue: enraged golfers attacking TechRadar Towers with pimped-out golf carts.) In Putt Golf, you get an oscillating targeting system, prod to putt, and then use tilting to amend the ball's path with digital Jedi-mind skills as it trundles towards the hole. Three game modes; hugely addictive. 33. Top Trumps Collection If you spent a good part of your childhood wondering if the length of a Triceratops was enough to defeat your opponent's hidden dinosaur card, Top Trumps Collection will inject nostalgia directly into your brain. The AI can be a tad suspect, but this is nonetheless a decent reworking of the classic card game, with multiple modes of play and additional packs available via IAP. 34. Drop7 What do you get if you cross Drop7 with Zynga? A free version of Drop7! Luckily, the game's far more entertaining than that attempt at a joke: drop numbered discs into a grid and watch them explode when the number of discs in a column or row matches numbers on the discs. Drive yourself mad trying to boost your score by chaining! Forget to eat! (Also: ignore the bugs!) 35. Galaga 30th Collection In the old days, invaders from space were strange, remaining in a holding pattern and slowly descending, enabling you to shoot them. By the time of Galaxian, the aliens realised they could swoop down and get you, and Galaga 30th Collection is the game you get here, with minor updates that improve its graphics and pace, albeit for a weighty 135 MB footprint on your device. Galaga fanatics can unlock other remakes in the series via IAP. 36. Candy Train The cute little train is out of Control! Eek! Rotate pieces of track in Candy Train to help the chuffing hero collide with gigantic sweets, which results in points rather than a candy-based derailing disaster on the 6 o' clock news. 37. X-Baseball It's a little-known fact that baseball mostly involves trying to hit colourful birds flying overhead and bananas lobbed in your direction by a mischievous fan. But X-Baseball provides a perfect, accurate one-thumb iOS recreation of America's favourite banana-thwacking pastime. (What?) 38. Rogue Runner Rogue Runner is another one of those endless games, where you leap over gaps and shoot things until you fall down a chasm and ponder why your in-game avatar doesn't learn to stop once in a while. Rogue Runner stands out by offering a ton of skins and a smart overhead dodge-and-shoot variation, which is a bit like Spy Hunter if someone knocked the original arcade cabinet on its side - the vandal. 39. Road Hog It's another one of those endless games, but this one has you… moving into the screen. Actually, Road Hog's a bit more than that, because you can move left and right, jump, use power-ups and grab stars to boost your score. Therefore, the game's a bit closer to a 3D Mario, if he was in a car that he drove recklessly along an endless road. Which we're pretty sure is what he does on his day off. 40. Chuck's Challenge Chuck's Challenge is a sweet puzzle game that challenges you to solve a few dozen overhead levels, which are essentially tightly designed logic puzzles. Mooch about, find keys, open doors, and try very hard not to get killed. If your spiky-haired character manages to survive, more level packs are available via IAP. 41. Draw Something Free "No drawing skills required!," boasts the App Store description for Draw Something Free. You might argue otherwise when this app demands you draw something suitably tricky for your friends to guess, but can merely manage a red blob. Still, Pictionary plus iPhone plus social gaming equals 'must have' in gaming maths. 42. Temple Run Top tip for any budding Indiana Jones types reading this: do not steal shiny things from temples guarded by demon monkeys, otherwise you will die. Still, if you're too stubborn to take our advice, use Temple Run for training, swiping and tilting your device until your on screen hero meets his inevitable demise. 43. ElectroMaster We've no idea what's going on in ElectroMaster, beyond a bored girl trying to avoid responsibility by killing everything in sight with electro-blasts. The game's sort of like a twin-stick shooter but you tap-hold to charge and then release to let rip, dragging your finger about to fry your foes. Games are short, but this is one of the most thrilling blasters on the system, despite it costing nothing at all. 44. Grim Joggers Freestyle The original Grim Joggers was odd enough: 15 joggers jog for their lives in oddball environments, including a warzone, the Arctic, and an alien world. In the free Grim Joggers Freestyle, you get just one world, but it mashes up everything from the paid game into a surreal (but thoroughly enjoyable) endless survival game. 45. Frisbee Forever Flinging a plastic disc can be dull in the real world, but in this whimsical game the classic toy gets to soar over desert canyons, through Ferris wheels and alongside pirate ships moored in sandy bays. Frisbee Forever is a flying disc game as Nintendo might have crafted it, with vibrant graphics, jolly music and simple but engaging gameplay. 46. Wind-Up Knight Kings in fairytale lands have a screw lose, or perhaps just an odd desire to create the conditions for a tough videogame. In Wind-Up Knight, a princess has been kidnapped. Horrors! But rather than send an army, the king tasks a knight with rescuing her. Only he's fragile. And clockwork. And can't turn around. Really, it's an excuse for puzzle-oriented swipe-based thrills, which demand near-perfect timing as the quest nears its end. 47. Hero Academy Most developers create games from code, but we're pretty sure Hero Academy's composed of the most addictive substances known to man all smushed together and shoved on to the App Store. The game's sort-of chess with fantasy characters, but the flexibility within the rule-set provides limitless scope for asynchronous one-on-one encounters. For free, you have to put up with ads and only get the 'human' team, but that'll be more than enough to get you hooked. 48. Greedy Bankers: Bailout! A nod to our current financial woes, Greedy Bankers: Bailout! is all about greed. You swipe coloured gems together, to make bigger gems; tap and they explode in a shower of gold coins. Avoid the thief and beat the time limit to succeed. Extra modes are available via IAP, but the original—Arcade—should keep dollar signs in your eyes for a long while. 49. Tiny Tower Social management games are big business, but are often stuffed full of cynical wallet-grabbing mechanics. While Tiny Tower does have the whiff of IAP to speed things along a bit, its tower-building and management remains enjoyable even if you pay nothing at all, and the pixel graphics are lovely. 50. Triple Town Three bushes make a tree! Three gravestones make a church! OK, so logic might not be Triple Town's strong suit, but the match-three gameplay is addictive. Match to build things and trap bears, rapidly run out of space, gaze in wonder at your town and start all over again. The free-to-play version has limited moves that are gradually replenished, but you can unlock unlimited moves via IAP. 51. Letterpress What mad fool welds Boggle to tug o' war Risk-style land-grabbing? The kind who doesn't want anyone to get any work done again, ever, that's who. Letterpress is, simply, the best word game on the App Store. You make words to win points and temporarily 'lock' letters from your opponent by surrounding them. The result is a tense asynchronous two-player game with plenty of last-move wins and general gnashing of teeth when you realise 'qin' is in fact an acceptable word. 52. Bejeweled Blitz Before we played Bejeweled Blitz, we never knew precious gems were so 'explodey'. Still, here's the frantic member of the match-tree/gem-swap family, giving you one minute to obliterate as much shiny as possible, and then discover via online leaderboards that your chums are gem-smashing wizards. 53. Kings' Corners It's a solitaire game! Yawn. But wait: King's Corners has lovely cards, demands a ton of forward thinking, and walks that fine line of risk-versus-reward. The aim: kings in the corners, jacks at the sides and queens across the top and bottom. The snag: limited slots and sudden-death defeat if you can't place a card in its intended home. The upside: an 'easy' mode with a 'reserve' slot if you're regularly taking a beating. God save the reserve slot! 54. Frisbee Forever 2 We already covered Frisbee Forever on this list, with its Nintendo-like fling-a-plastic-disc about larks. Frisbee Forever 2's essentially more of the same, but prettier, smoother and with wilder locations in which to fly through hoops and collect stars. It's lovely and costs precisely zero pence, so download it. 55. Gridrunner Free Jeff Minter is a shoot 'em up genius, and his Gridrunner series has a long history, starting out on the VIC-20, at the dawn of home gaming. This update riffs off classic Namco arcade machines but also shoves modern bullet-hell mechanics into a claustrophobic single screen, and in this version's survival mode, you have just one life. Argh! The 69p 'Oxtended Mode' IAP adds the rest of the standard game. 56. Subway Surfers It looks a lot like Temple Run mashed into a children's cartoon show, but Subway Surfers plays a lot more like Run!, with its primarily linear leaping and sliding action. There are also plenty of power-ups to keep your graffiti-spraying hoodlum away from the chasing lawman and his faithful mutt. Just don't try this at home, kids, unless you want to redecorate a train with your innards. 57. HungryMaster The hero from the insane ElectroMaster returns, but this time she appears to be tasked with feeding sentient houses roaring "HUNGRY!" in a fairly rude manner. Local monsters amble about, which can be snared by swiping over them with a surprisingly deadly pixie dust trail, whereupon they're handily converted into food to be collected. Much like ElectroMaster, HungryMaster feels like someone found a lost classic arcade game and squirted it into your iPhone, but forgot to charge you for it. 58. Super Tiny Leap It's tough being a tiny robot when you want to fly but those dolts at the factory forgot to fit you with a tiny jet-pack. Fortunately, our metal chum in Super Tiny Leap has the power to materialise boxes and can therefore boing towards the heavens - right up until the point he runs out of boxes, so ensure you collect plenty during his 'Doodle Jump with some added strategy' journey. 59. Jetpack Joyride We're pretty certain if there's one thing you shouldn't be using for a joyride, it's a jetpack that's kept aloft by firing bullets at the floor. But that's the score in this endless survival game with decidedly tongue-in-cheek humour, not least the profit bird power-up, a rather unsubtle dig at certain App Store chart-toppers. 60. Chip Chain This combo-oriented match game has a casino feel, and there is a certain amount of luck evident, not least in the way new chips are added to the table. But in carefully laying your own chips in Chip Chain, merging sets of three to increment their number, and wisely playing cards, you can amass high scores while simultaneously wondering why real casino games are rarely as much fun.

Upswing in parents naming children Apple, Mac and Siri Posted: Parents with questionable taste have been looking to Apple in 2012, with Apple, Mac and Siri all proving growers in the baby-naming department. Of the three, Apple made the biggest leap up the baby name charts, hopping up 15 per cent compared to the previous year. Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their child Apple and it doesn't seem to have done her too much harm as yet. Mac we can also get behind. Technically short for Macaulay or Mackenzie, there have been some excellent Macs throughout history – Macaulay Culkin, Mac from Predator and the Big Mac to name just three notable examples. Siri-ously? But Siri? Yes, some poor girls out there are named Siri – up 5 per cent on the previous year. Although Siri is a popular girls' name in Norway, in many countries it is now synonymous with a notoriously half-baked voice-controlled assistant that is, in the UK at least, exclusively voiced by a man. And some of us will never forget those terrible Zooey Deschanel adverts. Siri is that RAIN? Also making the survey of 450,000 new baby names this year were Ace (presumably for the Samsung Galaxy Ace), Excel (because some people really do love spreadsheets) – and at least one poor boy out there is now called Google.

iTunes 11 adds camera-enabled gift card redemption Posted: After what seemed like an eternity waiting for iTunes 11 to finally arrive, on Thursday Apple finally released the latest version of its popular music tuner. Featuring a slew of new changes and upgrades like iCloud and Facebook integration and a sleeker user interface, iTunes 11 is being billed as completely redesigned and newly remodeled. Not all of the updates are cosmetic though, as Apple has included some new functionality to make iTunes 11 even easier to use. Case in point, the all-new ability to photograph an iTunes gift card in order to redeem the code. Picture this Instead of having to type in cumbersome 16-digit codes typically found on the back of iTunes gift cards, users who've upgraded to iTunes 11 will be able to use the computer's camera to snap a picture of the code. Once that's done, the card is redeemed, and the money is transferred to the person's iTunes account. The 16-digit code can still be manually typed in, and depending on what type of gift card is being used, the code may have to be input manually. As of right now, iTunes 11 photo recognition requires the user to have an iTunes gift card with the code encased in a rectangular box for easier identification. Unfortunately, this new trick hasn't made the jump to iOS just yet, but it's certainly within reason to expect Apple to introduce the feature down the line.

Updated: Apple's iTunes 11 now available for download Posted: Apple's new iTunes 11 is finally ready for download. Apple made the announcement via its iTunes page Thursday, confirming an earlier report that the music would indeed rain down on us in a matter of hours. The new tune turner was due out before the end of the month, and the Nov. 29 seems to be just about as close to the end as Cupertino could cut it. Originally slated for an October release, Apple held off on breaking out the new 'Tunes to "get it right." It looks like the fruity folk finally got the service where it needed to be. New look, new feel Apple is calling iTunes 11 "a redesigned player," something we've never seen or used before. New library views that facilitate smarter, more intuitive searches and a new MiniPlayer that's jammed with more features are part of the package. The update also features expanded views for more in depth searches (want to know every song on an album?), preview history to help users return to previous searches more quickly and a new storefront that, in Apple's words, perfectly in tune - with you. To the cloud iTunes 11 also features greater iCloud integration. Whenever users buy an album, song, movie or TV on any device, it become instantly available in the iTunes library on either a Mac or PC. iCloud also lets users pick up where they left off - whether it's a movie, song, TV show podcast or whatever it is you're streaming on iTunes. All in all, this is a sleek redesign that turns Tunes into quite a hip looking hub. Now let's see how users like it.

Updated: 70 best free iPad apps 2012 Posted: Best free iPad apps: 1-30 On comparing iPad apps with iPhone equivalents, one thing rapidly becomes clear: apps for Apple's tablet are pricier. Many of the best 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 is our pick of the best free iPad apps. Note that apps marked 'universal' will run on your iPad and iPhone, optimising themselves accordingly. iPad 4 review iPad mini review FutTv : 9m3PCERvW80St 1. AccuWeather for iPad Annoyingly, some free iPad weather apps refuse to believe that the UK has any weather (or that the country exists), so AccuWeather gets props for merely working. Happily, AccuWeather also proves to be a decent – if quirky – weather app. The interface is odd (but fun) and there's a 'lifestyle' page that determines how your current local conditions might affect over 20 activities, including dog-walking and stargazing. 2. Facebook (universal) The social networking giant has gone back-and-forth with its mobile apps, finally settling on this smart, native implementation. Much like the slightly simpler iPhone equivalent, Facebook on iPad is such that you won't want to use the comparatively clunky website again for seeing which of your friends really shouldn't have internet access after midnight. 3. Air Video Free (universal) Despite naysayers whining about the iPad screen's 4:3 aspect ratio, it's a decent device for watching video, although it lacks storage for housing large video collections. Air Video enables you to stream video (converting it on-the-fly, if necessary) from your Mac or PC. The main limitation of the free version is that it only shows a few items (randomly selected) from each folder or playlist. 4. Beatwave (universal) Beatwave is a simplified Tenori-On-style synth which enables you to rapidly build pleasing melodies by prodding a grid. Multiple layers and various instruments provide scope for complex compositions, and you can save sessions or, handily, store and share compositions via email. You can also buy more instruments via in-app purchases. 5. Bloomberg for iPad It used to boast an eye-searing white-and-orange-on-black colour scheme that was a little like being repeatedly punched in the eyes, but now Bloomberg has grown up, discovered a palette (a subtler, serious 'things on black', for the most part), and has subsequently become a much more usable business news and stocks app. 6. Comics (universal) On the iPhone, Comics is innovative, but zooming each panel and constantly rotating your device gets old fast. By contrast, the iPad's screen is big enough to display an entire page without the need to zoom or scroll. And with dozens of free comics available via the bundled store, comic book fans should lap this app up. 7. Dictionary.com – Dictionary & Thesaurus – For iPad We approached Dictionary with scepticism, since most free dictionary apps are sluggish interfaces to websites. That's certainly what this looks like, but it works offline, providing speedy access to over two million words and definitions. The app's search is also reassuringly fast. 8. Dropbox (universal) Dropbox is a great service for syncing documents across multiple devices. The iPad client works like the iPhone one (hardly surprising, since this is a universal app), enabling you to preview many file types and store those marked as favourites locally. 9. Evernote (universal) Like Dropbox, Evernote (a free online service for saving ideas – text documents, images and web clips – that you can then access from multiple devices) works the same way on the iPad as it does on the iPhone. It benefits from the iPad's larger screen, which enables you to see and navigate your stored snippets more easily. 10. Feeddler RSS Reader for iPad Feeddler RSS Reader for iPad is fairly basic as RSS readers go, but once you've pointed it at your Google Reader account it's efficient, stores text offline, enables you to browse by feed and has a built-in browser so you're not booted to Safari when you want to visit a link. 11. The Guardian Eyewitness A showcase for engaging photography, The Guardian Eyewitness provides a daily, visual reflection of global events. You get access to the most recent 100 photos, which can be viewed full-screen or with a caption and 'pro tip'. You can also save photos to your iPad or share them via email. 12. iBooks (universal) Going head-to-head with Kindle, iBooks is a decent ebook reader, backed by the iBookstore. As you'd expect from Apple, the interface is polished and usable, with handy cross-device bookmark syncing, highlighting, and various display options. It's also a capable PDF reader, for your digital magazine collection. 13. IM+ (universal) Although the iPad enables a certain amount of basic multi-tasking, anyone who constantly juggles a number of instant messaging services will soon be tired of leaping between apps. IM+ is a good solution, enabling you to run a number of IM services in a single app, and there's also a built-in web browser for checking out links. 14. Kindle (universal) Amazon's Kindle iPad app for reading myriad books available at the Kindle Store is a little workmanlike, and doesn't match the coherence of iBooks (you buy titles in Safari and 'sync' purchases via Kindle). However, Kindle's fine for reading, and you get options to optimise your experience (including the ability to kill the naff page-turn animation and amend the page background to a pleasant sepia tone). 15. Movies by Flixter (universal) One for film buffs, Movies figures out where you are and tells you what's showing in your local cinemas – or you can pick a film and it'll tell you where and when it's on. The app is functionally identical on iPad and iPhone, but again the extra screen space improves the experience. 16. PaperDesk Lite for iPad Effectively a souped-up digital notepad, PaperDesk Lite for iPad enables you to combine typed words, scribbles and audio recordings in user-defined notebooks. Be mindful, though, that this free version restricts you to three notebooks, each of which can only have three pages, and there are no export options. 17. PCalc Lite (universal) PCalc Lite's existence means the lack of a built-in iPad calculator doesn't bother us (in fact, we'd love to replace the iPhone Calculator app with PCalc Lite as well). This app is usable and feature-rich – and if you end up wanting more, in-app purchases enable you to bolt on extras from the full PCalc. 18. Reuters News Pro for iPad Spurious anti-competition complaints meant the BBC News app took a while to come to the UK; in the meantime, Reuters offered the next best free news app for iPad with its Reuters News Pro for iPad. It's a little US-centric, but can be skewed towards UK coverage via the Settings app, and it's worth downloading for a more international take on news coverage than BBC News provides. 19. Twitterrific for Twitter (universal) The iPad version of Twitterrific marked a new beginning for the app, which the developers decided had become too complicated. On iPad, it was reworked into a simpler form, and this has resulted in Twitterrific becoming a simple, good-looking and usable Twitter client. Multiple-account functionality is available via IAP. 20. Wikipanion for iPad The Wikipedia website works fine in Safari for iPad, but dedicated apps make navigating the site simpler and faster. We went back and forth between Simplepedia and Wikipanion, eventually plumping for the latter, largely due to its efficient two-pane landscape view with excellent bookmarking and history access. 21. eBay for iPad Use eBay for iPad and you'll never touch eBay in a web browser again. It's fast and efficient, beautifully showcasing important details and images in its main results view. Gallery images can often be displayed almost at a full-screen size, which is particularly useful on an iPad with a Retina display. Speedy sorting options are also available. 22. Soundrop (universal) Soundrop is a minimal generative sound toy that offers an endless stream of balls, which make noises when they collide with and bounce off user-drawn lines. The overall result is surprisingly fun and hypnotic. For more advanced features – save, multiple instruments and gravity adjustment – there's an in-app 'pro' purchase option. 23. Granimator Wallpaper apps litter the App Store, but are mostly dull, offering photos of brick walls or bored animals. Granimator is a bonkers art tool, enabling you to choose a background and spray all manner of shapes around. Compositions can be fine-tuned by dragging objects, and then shared to Flickr, Twitter or your device's Photos app. 24. Google Earth (universal) It's not the smoothest app in the world, and it lacks some elements from the desktop, but Google Earth is nonetheless a joy on the iPad. Touch gestures are an intuitive means of swooping around the planet, and the optional layers enable you to display as much or as little ancillary information as you wish. 25. Explore Flickr (universal) Explore Flickr provides an engaging way to discover new photography. On launch, your iPad screen fills with a grid of thumbnails, drawn from Flickr.com's top daily images. Tap one to view (and, if rights permit, download to your device), or just leave the app lazily updating (every now and again, a thumbnail spins to reveal a new image) while your iPad charges in its dock. As a special bonus, you can check out T3's favourite five iPad apps: FutTv : beYdOpT2xGi0Y 26. Rj Voyager One for budding iPad DJs, Rj Voyager enables you to choose from a selection of bundled tracks, turn parts on and off and edit parameters in real-time via an intuitive, futuristic interface. Play through headphones or a decent sound system and the result is infectious. 27. BBC News (universal) Although the BBC News website works nicely on the iPad, BBC News is still worth downloading. Rather than trying to provide all of the news, it instead concentrates on the latest stories, with inline video. Categories can be rearranged, stories can be shared and the app's layout adjusts to portrait and landscape orientations. 28. Epicurious (universal) Tens of thousands of recipes at your fingertips (as long as you have a web connection) ensure Epicurious is worth a download for the culinary-inclined. The app even composes a shopping list for recipes; it's just a pity it doesn't include measurements for those of us who use that new-fangled metric system. 29. WordPress (universal) This official WordPress app has a reputation for being a bit clunky, but it's fine for authoring the odd blog post on the go, along with making quick edits to existing content and managing comments. It also offers both text-based and visual approaches to crafting posts, so you're not stuck with HTML. Best free iPad apps: 31-60 30. TV Guide for iPad From simple beginnings, TV Guide for iPad has grown into a robust and useful app for TV addicts. It would be worth downloading for the smart-looking listings alone, but you can also flag favourites, search listings, set alerts, share to social networks, and get info on a programme from IMDb or Wikipedia. And if you own a Sky or Virgin system, you can even remote-record from the app. 31. Adobe Photoshop Express (universal) With people regularly moaning about bloat in Adobe's desktop applications, it's great to see the giant create something as focused and usable as Adobe Photoshop Express. Its toolset is strictly for basic edits (crop, straighten, rotate, flip, levels and lighting adjustments), and applying a few effects, but the app is fast, stable and extremely useable. Top marks. 32. App Shopper (universal) Prices on the App Store go up and down like a yo-yo, and Apple's own wish-list mechanics leave a lot to be desired. You're better off using App Shopper, which lists bargain apps and also enables you to compile a wish-list and be notified when an item drops in price. 33. Find my iPhone (universal) Find my iPhone would perhaps be better named 'Find my Apple stuff', because it's not just for figuring out where a missing iPhone is—it can also track iPads, iPods and Macs. The app is simple, elegant and, generally speaking, provides an accurate location for devices. It also enables you to remote-lock or wipe a device. 34. Flipboard (universal) Initially, Flipboard looked like a gimmick, trying desperately to make online content resemble a magazine. But now it can integrate Google Reader, Flickr and other networks, beautifully laying out their articles, Flipboard's muscled into the 'essential' category – and it's still free. 35. Find My Friends (universal) While perhaps less practical than on the iPhone, Find My Friends on the iPad nonetheless works well, enabling you to track any pals that are happy with you digitally stalking them. The iPad's large display improves the app's usability, simultaneously displaying your friend list and a map. 36. IMDB (universal) IMDB might be a wee bit US-focused at times (much like the movie industry), but the app is a great way to browse more movie-related info than you could ever hope to consume in a single lifetime. Settings enable you to define which sites IMDB and Amazon info is taken from, and the show times finder works pretty well. 37. Pocket (universal) Pocket and Instapaper have long battled it out for 'article scraper' king, but Pocket trumps its rival in appealing to iPad-owning cheapskates. Instapaper requires a purchase for iPad goodness, but Pocket is free. It's also very fast, offers tagging, includes a great original article/plain-text toggle, and has a vaguely Flipboard-like visual grid-based index. 38. TED (universal) TED describes itself as "riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world". The app pretty much does as you'd expect – you get quick access to dozens of inspiring videos. However, it goes the extra mile in enabling you to save any talk for offline viewing, and also for providing hints on what to watch next if you've enjoyed a particular talk. 39. Twitter (universal) This app used to showcase some breathtaking iPad UI innovation, but in its quest for cross-platform consistency, Twitter has refashioned its tablet offering as a blown-up version of the iPhone app. The result is a far less exciting experience, but one that's nonetheless very usable, and which unlike third-party apps rolls in the service's Interactions and Discover tabs. 40. Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HD There's not a great deal to piano app Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HD, but it's not bad for a freebie. You get a dual-keyboard set-up, with optional key labels, and you can shift octaves and notes by prodding arrows. A really nice touch is the 'duette' [sic] button, which creates a second, mirror image, keyboard, so that two people can play at once. 41. BBC iPlayer (universal) BBC iPlayer is a must-have download for iPad users. The slick interface makes it easy to browse/watch recent shows and current broadcasts. You can also choose from two quality settings and toggle subtitles, and there's AirPlay support for an Apple TV. Recent updates also enable you to download shows to your iPad, so that you can watch them on the move. 42. Dolphin Browser Safari for iPad is a great mobile browser, but if you hanker for more features, Dolphin is a decent alternative. The browser has an Opera-like 'speed dial' that provides one-touch access to favourites, and you can create personalised action gestures. There's also a distraction-free full-screen mode for when you really want to get into a website. 43. Skyscanner (universal) Skyscanner's website is pretty good, but the iPad app's another great example of how an app's focus can really help you speed through a task. You use the app to search over a thousand airlines, and it provides straightforward competitive journey lists and comparison graphs. If you're planning a flight, it's an indispensable download. 44. Dragon Dictation (universal) There's always something slightly spooky about voice recognition software, as if Skynet's listening in or something, but such tools had for years been out of most people's reach. Now, Dragon Dictation is free for iOS. It's eerily accurate, trainable and, despite the dev recommending you use an external microphone, the app works fine with the iPad's built-in one. 45. Remote (universal) Although pretty basic on the iPhone, Remote on the iPad is akin to a stripped-down iTunes when it comes to accessing network libraries and playing music. It's also indispensable if you have an Apple TV and want to control it with something other than the hateful metal chewing-gum stick that ships with the device. 46. Pulse News Reader When unveiled, RSS reader Pulse was divisive, with an unresponsive oddball interface. But it's evolved to become free and fast, and is now a tactile, enjoyable way to catch up on news. The image-oriented interface, with slider-based RSS feeds (akin to those in the BBC News app) and configurable tab groups, makes it particularly suitable for anyone who subscribes to image-heavy sites. 47. Fotopedia Heritage (universal) Rather like The Guardian Eyewitness, Fotopedia Heritage is perfect for anyone who enjoys awe-inspiring photography. The app enables you to browse tens of thousands of photos of beautiful locations worldwide. It also provides information about each location, and can be used for travel planning through favourites and links to TripAdvisor. 48. Yell If you're in an unfamiliar place or travelling somewhere new, Yell is a great app for figuring out what amenities are available locally. The interface is responsive and efficient, and you can handily add any business you find as a favourite for easy access later on. 49. XE Currency for iPad (universal) It's as ugly as they come, but XE Currency is the best free currency app you'll find. You define which currencies you want to see, along with the number of decimals to show. Double-tap a currency and you can set it as the base currency by tapping 1.0 in the calculator, or do bespoke conversions by typing any other value. 50. Airport Utility (universal) With apps like Airport Utility, it's increasingly clear Apple now sees the iPad as an independent unit, not merely an accessory to a PC or Mac. The app provides an overview of your Wi-Fi network, and enables you to view and change settings, restore or restart a base station, and get terribly angry at a flashing orange light that denotes your ISP's gone belly up. 51. Skype for iPad In theory, we should be cheerleading for FaceTime, what with it being built into iOS devices, but it's still an Apple-only system. Skype, however, is enjoyed by myriad users who haven't been bitten by the Apple bug, and it works very nicely on the iPad, including over 3G. 52. Skitch for iPad (universal) Skitch is a screen-grab and annotation tool that was snapped up by Evernote. In its iPad incarnation, it enables you to scribble on grabs, photos, maps and web pages and then fling the result to Twitter, email or Evernote, or fire your work at an Apple TV. 53. Readability (universal) The latest of the major read-it-later systems, Readability brings with it a clean interface and a lovely set of fonts. As with the likes of Instapaper, Readability strips junk from web pages, leaving only the content. As you'd expect, you can also send on anything particularly interesting to Twitter and Facebook. 54. iTunes U (universal) If you're still convinced the iPad is only a device for staring brain-dead at TV shows and not a practical tool for education, check out iTunes U. The app enables you to access many thousands of free lectures and courses taught by universities and colleges, thereby learning far more than what bizarre schemes current soap characters are hatching. 55. 4oD Catch Up (universal) Despite what we said in the previous entry, the iPad is, of course, a great tool for TV. (After all, once you're done studying, you need some downtime, right?) Channel 4's 4oD app enables you to view a selection of recent shows, along with a handful of classic programmes. 56. Google Search (universal) Google Search might seem redundant—after all, the iPad's Safari app has a built-in Google search field. However, Google's own offering provides a superior search experience that's been specifically designed for iPad. Highlights include a tactile image carousel, visual search history and Google Goggles integration. 57. TuneIn Radio (universal) Output your iPad's audio to an amp or a set of portable speakers, fire up TuneIn Radio, select a station and you've a set-up to beat any DAB radio. Along with inevitable social sharing, the app also provides an alarm, AirPlay support, pause and rewind, and a 'shake to switch station' feature—handy if the current DJ's annoying and you feel the need to vent. 58. TVCatchup Live TV (universal) More TV! This time, it's the only partially inaccurately named TVCatchup Live TV; with it, you can watch TV for free, but it's not so much 'catch-up' as 'watch what's on now'. You get access to over 50 channels, although we're unsure about taking the developer's advice that you can "even watch TV in the bath"—iPads don't float. 59. Netflix (universal) Netflix has been described by some in the UK as the perfect way to experience everything a DVD bargain bin has to offer. We do agree there's a lack of content compared to the US library, but Netflix is cheap and fine for catching up on older shows. And the iPad app includes AirPlay support and a resume function, so you can pick up where you left off on another device. 60. SoundCloud (universal) SoundCloud is a popular service for sharing sounds, and the iPad app enables you to search and play myriad snippets and music tracks hosted on SoundCloud's servers. If you're a budding musician or oddball loudmouth, you can also record and upload sounds from your iPad, or record to upload later. 61. 30/30 (universal) It's easy enough to ignore a to-do when it's lurking somewhere in the background on your Mac or PC, but on an iPad, 30/30's crystal-clear events (including optional repeating loops for work/break cycles) can't be so easily dismissed. Fortunately, it looks great and the tactile interface makes creating and removing items a joy. 62. Paper By FiftyThree There's a certain train of thought that apps shouldn't ape real-world items, but we dismiss such talk. They just shouldn't ape real-world items badly! Paper by FiftyThree gets this right, with beautiful sketchbooks in which you can scribble, then share across the web. Books and the pen tool are free, and other tools are available via In-App Purchase. 63. Telegraph pictures for iPad Rather like the Guardian Eyewitness app, Telegraph Pictures for iPad provides you with new imagery on a daily basis. In fact, The Telegraph's rather more generous than The Guardian, offering a dozen new photographs every 24 hours, and leaving a 14-day archive for you to explore at any time. 64. Sticky Notes for iPad If you're a fan of sticky notes, but not the sticky nor the waste, Sticky Notes for iPad provides you with the means to bung colourful rectangular notes on your iPad's screen, even dictating the text should you wish. Just don't have someone think they can't get the note off and then attack your device with a scourer. 65. Architizer There are two levels to this beautifully designed app directed at architects and anyone else with an interest in buildings. On entry, you can select projects from a grid that's updated in real-time. Photography can then be explored full-screen. However, you can also dig deeper, finding out more about each project and who designed it. 66. Pinterest (universal) Social network Pinterest is one of the very few to challenge the big guns in the industry. It provides a means to find and share inspiration, working as a place to collect and organise the things you love. The iPad app has an elegant interface that pushes inspirational imagery to the fore, just as it should. 67. Cards (universal) Yes, the cards that you can send from Cards cost three quid each, but the app itself is free, providing the means to experiment in making cards for your loved ones, based on your own images. Without spending anything, it's a fun toy; even when you send cards, it might work out cheaper than shop prices - and the images will be far more personal. 68. Quark DesignPad One for the graphic designers out there, desktop publishing giant Quark's DesignPad is an astonishingly useful app for figuring out layouts on the move, or knocking about ideas in meetings. Plenty of ready-made documents can give you a head-start, and your finished work can be exported as a PNG or emailed for use in a QuarkXPress document. 69. Gmail (universal) Because of its single-app nature and big screen, the iPad's become a tool many people prefer to a PC or Mac for email. However, if you're reliant on Gmail, Apple's own Mail is insufficient, not providing access to your entire archive nor Gmail's features. Google's own app deals with such shortcomings and looks as good as Apple's client. 70. Solar Walk: Saturn (universal) Really, this is a promotional app for Solar Walk, but what a piece of promotion it is! There's a ton of information and interactive components that concentrate on perhaps the most fascinating of planets in our solar system, and it looks particularly impressive on a Retina iPad.

OS X 10.8.3 beta contains AMD Radeon 7000 drivers, likely for new Mac Pro Posted: The OS X 10.8.3 release date isn't expected until 2013, but the beta for this next Mountain Lion update has been seeded to developers who say it contains AMD Radeon 7000 drivers. Concrete evidence of AMD Radeon HD 7XXX chipset model support was revealed in the system information menu of "Build 12D32" and picked up by Netkas member Rominator. The presence of previously unsupported graphics drivers like the ones for the Radeon HD 7000 series is significant because it typically points to new hardware that Apple is working on. Redesigned Mac Pro evidence Specifically, a new Mac Pro is expected to be the hardware that makes use of AMD's new line of graphics cards, codenamed "Tahiti." This thinking is in line with current Mac desktop configurations. Mac Pro tech specs include AMD Radeon HD 5770 and AMD Radeon HD 5870, while all iMacs use NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphic cards. An AMD Radeon HD 7950 and 7970 would be a natural progression for the Mac Pro. Tim Cook's 2013 Mac Pro tower hint A redesigned Mac Pro tower in 2013 would also fulfill Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent promise to a customer about the company's most powerful computer. "Our Pro customers like you are really important to us," Cook said to the customer in an e-mail. "We're working on something really great for later next year." This e-mail exchange occurred after the WWDC 2012 keynote. Apple quietly updated the Mac Pro with a slight spec bump, but made no on-stage announcement of the upgrade. In addition to the new graphics card support evidence in OS X 10.8.3, code for "MP60" within Mountain Lion's Boot Camp software further indicates that "something really great" is still on its way.

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