The unbelievably popular Angry Birds app has today received a new update, version 1.6.0, which brings a new episode for users to play with. The new underground episode, titled ‘Mining and Dining with the Burrowing Piggies’, is jam packed with another 15 levels to complete.

With a bottomless appetite, the bad piggies have burrowed deep in underground caverns to hide the eggs they stole from you. Use the landscape and geology to your advantage to chase the pigs out of their hiding holes, gather rare gems, and retrieve the eggs!

The new levels are cave themed and as usual there are jewels to find, but there is also new a gameplay mechanic – shoot at the hanging stalactites to “pop those pesky burrowing piggies”. Apart from the new levels, Rovio has tweaked some existing levels that were stonewalling people. The app update is available for both the iPhone version version and iPad version of Angry Birds.

Meanwhile, Peter Vesterbacka CEO of Rovio, spoke at the openIDEAS Conference in Europe today and revealed that the Angry Birds games are now seeing over a million downloads per day. You may recall that Rovio revealed that over Christmas Day last year it saw its most successful day ever with one million downloads – now that’s a daily occurance. In recent times it had also surpassed 250 million downloads.

[Via The Next Web]

Yahoo today launched a new search service that aims to improve the searching experience for the iPhone App Store and the Android Marketplace. The service brings a new app called Yahoo! AppSpot to the iPhone and Android as well as the Yahoo! App Search website.

With 425,000-plus apps in the Apple App Store and 200,000 apps in Android Market, we know finding what you want can be exhausting. And even more challenging: There are times you don’t know the specific name of the app, so you’re leaving it up to chance that you’re actually downloading the app you really want.

Yahoo claims to be able to search the App Store and Android Marketplace more intelligently as well as also offering users personal recommendations from within the AppSpot app. The personal recommendations feature works by first taking a look at all the apps you currently have on your iPhone (it asks for permission) and then displays eight suggestions for each category of the store. Unfortunately the recommendation system seemed very poor for me at least, suggesting a rather bizarre range of apps from ‘Alphabet Car’ to ‘Justin Bieber Revenge’ to ‘Foreclosure Search’.

Both the website and the app from Yahoo gives you all the same information that Apple’s own store provides, including: a description, rating, price and screenshots. If you choose to download the app through the AppSpot app it will launch you straight over to the App Store app. If you’re on the website on your Mac/PC though it will give you the option to either send an SMS with a link, open up the iTunes Preview page in your browser or display a QR code with the link embedded (the AppSpot App has a QR reader inbuilt).

You can try Yahoo! App Search from here and download the Yahoo! AppSpot App from here. Jump the break for a video promo.

[Via Engadget]
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Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

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On Monday we reported on what the most common PINs were for users of the Big Brother Camera Security app after its developer had added the ability for the app to anonymously send back those PINs. Many were not happy about hearing this and Apple was clearly among those as the Big Brother Camera Security app was pulled from the App Store yesterday.

In a blog post, the developer of the app, Danial Amitay explains that the app was not obtaining the actual lockscreen PINs but rather those used for his app. He also quells fears by explaining that when the app sent the data to his server it was “literally sending only that number (e.g. “1234”) and nothing else”. Amitay had presumed (when he added the function) that it would be within the iTunes EULA for him to do so, as it states the following (emphasis added):

b. Consent to Use of Data: You agree that Application Provider may collect and use technical data and related information, including but not limited to technical information about Your device, system and application software, and peripherals, that is gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, product support and other services to You (if any) related to the Licensed Application. Application Provider may use this information, as long as it is in a form that does not personally identify You, to improve its products or to provide services or technologies to You.

Amitay says he is actively trying to work out the issue Apple had with the app and get it back into the App Store soon. If it means he has to get rid of the code that sent the PIN data, he says would “gladly” do that, understanding the concern it raised. He does say however that he had planned to warn users not choose the obvious PINs that the data had revealed in a future update.

[Via Macgasm]

Twitterrific 4.2 is available on the App Store for both Mac and iOS right now if you’re so inclined to keep on top of the latest updates, and there’s some new major additions that we think you’ll really love. There’s also some big changes to how you’ll sign in–thanks to the way Twitter is requiring 3rd party clients to authorize your account–thus making 4.2 a mandatory update to comply with Twitter’s rules.

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Journalism.co.uk is reporting that the BCC in the United Kingdom is working on their own iPhone app that will let its reporters in the field record video, pictures and audio, and then incorporate the data directly into the BBC’s network.

The iPhone app is going to be available to BBC employees this month, giving their field reporters the ability to broadcast while on a 3G or WiFi network. This could be the perfect tool for those that report breaking stories and don’t have the professional A/V equipment with them at the exact moment.

The BCC sees mobile device use as a “logical extension of what [it] can do already” but this will be a great experiment to see how far they can take it.

Martin Turner, head of operations for news, said that “reporters have been using smart phones for a while now but it was never good quality… Now it is beginning to be a realistic possibility to use iPhones and other devices for live reporting, and in the end if you’ve got someone on the scene then you want to be able to use them.”

I can see how important this could be to reports on the scene of a breaking news story, a sporting event or an impromptu interview.

[via TNW]

Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

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There’s been some news on the Apple vs. Samsung patent battle today with some recent Apple filings coming to light where Apple alleges that Samsung is “attempt[ing] to harass” them and that Samsung’s demands are not made in good faith – even going so far as to label Samsung as “the copyist” in the documents. It comes after Samsung requested Apple to hand over the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 (or the most recent prototype) to Samsung’s lawyers, which itself was a response to Apple’s request for several Samsung products that hadn’t yet been released (although they were announced).

Samsung’s Motion to Compel is an improper attempt to harass Apple by demanding production of extremely sensitive trade secrets that have no relevance to Apple’s likelihood of success on its infringement claims or to a preliminary injunction motion.

This Friday (1:30 PM Pacific Time) Apple and Samsung will meet with their judge for the purpose of discussing Samsung’s request for expedited delivery (Samsung gaining access to the next generation iPhone and iPad). Apple’s recent filings are in preparation for this court session. FOSS Patents has given the filings a good look over and found some highlights.

As many had expected, Apple’s lawyers make the note that Samsung is asking for much more than what Apple asked given that the Samsung products, although unreleased, had been fully revealed and were available for pre-order. By contrast the next generation iPhone and iPad do not officially exist – in fact it notes in its filings that “Apple is widely recognised as one of the most secretive companies in the world”.

It also tackles the idea that whilst Samsung’s law firm may not leak the details of the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, it could use their knowledge of them to form future patent infringement theories for other companies it represents – which includes other major Android device makers including Samsung, Motorola and HTC.

It also puts the argument that since no future iPhone or iPad products are included in Apple’s complaint of Samsung products, there isn’t reason to show them. It also dismisses Samsung’s suggestion that future design changes “could indicate that Apple is not as consistent as it claims, and consequently Apple’s related rights could be weaker”. Be sure to head over to FOSS Patents if you want a more thorough review of the recent filing and if you want to remind yourself of what the lawsuit is about, be sure to head over to read This Is My Next’s excellent analysis.

[Via FOSS Patents]

One day earlier than was predicted, Apple has finally offered consumers the ability to purchase an unlocked iPhone 4 in the United States. At the moment only the GSM variety is available but you’re free to choose it in either white or black styling and in 16GB or 32GB variety.

Regardless of the color you choose, the iPhone 4 in 16GB variety starts at $649, whilst the 32GB is $749. It doesn’t come with a micro-SIM card so you’ll need to activate one yourself from any supported GSM carrier (worldwide). Whether you plan on using an iPhone extensively overseas or just on an alternative carrier, the unlocked iPhone may be your best choice – at least if you don’t want to go down the jailbreak and unlocking road.

You can purchase an unlocked iPhone 4 from the Apple online store here, and it is expected that Apple retailer stores will have them on sale from today or possibly tomorrow – we will update when we know for sure.

After everyone got their part numbers straightened out, it appears that unlocked iPhone 4s could be hitting American soil on Wednesday, possibly opening up the freedom of choice between carriers and allowing US consumers to easily grab a SIM overseas without incurring expensive roaming fees. This is big news for the United States, where unlocked phones aren’t typically sold in stores (while you can buy a phone in full, you’ll still end up being locked into a carrier). International travelers from the U.S. will finally be able to hot swap SIMs overseas, but could this be the only benefit? T-Mobile and AT&T run on GSM, but aren’t completely compatible with each other (they work on different bands), and Verizon is on its own with CDMA. The iPhone 4 does currently have a capable GSM-CDMA Qualcomm MDM6600 inside, although Apple currently hasn’t utilized the dual-mode functionality.

MacRumors reports that the unlocked iPhones have shipped to Apple Stores, and they’ll be available on store shelves starting Wednesday. They’ll cost you $649 an $749 a pop for 16GB and 32GB models: consumers who pay up front will have the benefit of avoiding carrier lock-in.

[via MacRumors]

Looking for all the hot topics of today? Patrick Rhone of Minimal Mac points to a very cool looking iPhone app called Funnel, which reminds me of Marcos Weskamp’s Newsmap, which provides a distinct way to view upcoming topics on Google News. While I haven’t visited the “Marumushi Newsmap” (as I called it when I was but a young teen) in a long time, provided you have Flash installed or you use Google Chrome, you can check out how news aggregates in real time. If we return to Funnel, it’s practically the same thing (which is great considering you can have Newsmap on the go). The bigger the news, the more popular that particular news item is. You can download it here (currently I’m having trouble pulling it up in the App Store). Let us know what you think if it’s available in your part of town.

[via Minimal Mac]