Posts in news

Square-Enix’s Highly Popular Chrono Trigger Now Available for iPhone

Square-Enix has released one of its most popular titles for iPhone today - Chrono Trigger. The heavily popular classic 16-bit jRPG from the Super Nintendo days adds the Dimensional Vortex and Lost Sanctum areas from the Nintendo DS remake for its iPhone release.

So how popular is Square-Enix’s Chrono Trigger? Well, IGN named it the #2 SNES game of all time, behind A Link to the Past. The iPhone port features touch-controlled menus, eight language options and “optimized” graphics for the iPhone. Read more

TV Purchases & Streaming Now Available For Australian, Canadian & UK Apple TV Owners

Owners of the Apple TV in Australia, Canada and the UK were given a nice surprise today with an over-the-air update enabling TV Shows to be purchased and watched directly on the device. It was a curious absence from the Apple TVs in those countries because although users could purchase TV shows from iTunes and on iOS devices (even stream it to the Apple TV with AirPlay) - until now they couldn’t purchase TV content directly from the Apple TV.

Apple hasn’t made any announcement about the update, but prices remain the same as they did previously. The update also introduces the “cloud locker” feature that was introduced with version 4.3 on the US Apple TV. If you are unaware of this feature, it allows you to play previously purchased TV content (the same feature is available for music, apps and books) - all thanks to iCloud.

[Via Engadget]

OnLive Gaming Service Launching on iOS and Android

OnLive has announced that its brining its streaming online gaming service to tablets and mobile phones via a playable client that will soon be available in the App Store. The OnLive app will make available console games previously unavailable to the iPhone and iPad, as digital gaming content is streamed over the Internet from a central location (processing and gameplay is done “in the cloud”). Those that have the bandwidth available can instantly pick up and play new titles without having to consume local storage or wait for the game to download. As games are played in the cloud, all save data is completely mobile and can be accessed from any device.

From the press release:

Over 25 OnLive titles, including L.A. Noire, family titles like LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and 5-7, and indies like Defense Grid Gold, will work with touch control on tablets and smartphones. And most of the nearly 200 games in OnLive’s growing library, including recent top-tier releases like Batman: Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Lord of the Rings: War in the North, are immediately playable on virtually any device with the Universal OnLive Wireless Controller, which utilizes OnLive’s exclusive adaptive wireless technology to automatically find an optimal wireless connection for a given tablet, smartphone, PC, Mac, TV or Blu-ray player. The Universal OnLive Wireless Controller will be available soon for purchase in the US and the UK, for $49.99 and £39.99 respectively.

The OnLive app will make use of OnLive Cloud Touch controls so you can manipulate the game on a touchscreen, but an optional controller is available for an additional fifty dollars that should seamlessly work with your iPad or Android tablet. OnLive says the iPad version should be available soon. TechCrunch notes than an iPhone version of the OnLive app is planned, but won’t be immediately available for the mobile launch. While the app itself will be free, you still have to pay to play games per title through OnLive’s PlayBack Bundle. Anyone who downloads the OnLive app will be able to play LEGO Batman free of charge.

[OnLive via MacRumors]

New Revisions for Apple’s Spaceship-Campus Reveal New Solar Roof and Renderings

It was back in June when we last talked about Apple’s 2nd mothership, or the proposed circular spaceship-like campus that’s currently planned to occupy a 98-acre plot of land purchased from Hewlett Packard (the total campus area includes 175 acres of land). On Wednesday, new revisions surfaced from the City of Cupertino detailing the new campus submissions from Apple, which includes new renderings and details about the structure’s massive size.

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Instagram Now Boasts 15 Million Users

Just a little over 2 months since it celebrated its 1 year anniversary and milestone of 10 million users, Instagram has today revealed that they now have 15 million users. The announcement was made by Kevin Systrom during his speech at LeWeb ‘11 today.

As the above graph demonstrates, Instagram has grown at a stunning pace, and continues to do so at an even more rapid rate. Systrom only recently revealed that Instagram had gained an additional 2 million members in the month of November alone.

Instagram is still a small operation with staff of only 10 people - but Systrom has revealed that they do have 2 staff members working on a (much anticipated) Android version of the app.

[Via The Next Web]

Apple Begins Preparing For Its 12 Days Of Christmas Promotion

Update: The app has made its way onto a number of European stores including the British and German app stores.

Apple will this year again run its ‘12 Days of Christmas’ promotion after releasing the companion iOS app a few days ago.  The promotion will run between December 26 and January 6, with each day featuring different music, videos, apps and books available for free for 24 hours.

Apple has not yet revealed what content will be offered for free — but if they follow the promotion that they did last year it will see the app update each day, displaying that day’s offering for the respective region (it changes based on the country). The app is not yet available in all countries, but included below is Apple’s description of the app. It should be expected that Apple will soon start marketing the promotion through iTunes and through their website.

You and your friends can download a fantastic selection of songs, music videos, apps and books for free. Each download will only be available for 24 hours. Get our special 12 Days of Christmas app to make it even easier to access your gifts while you’re on the go.

Don’t have an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch? Don’t worry. Come back 26 December to download gifts from your computer.

If the companion app is available in your region, you can download it for free on the App Store.

Evernote Introduces Two New iPhone Apps To Help Remember People & Meals

Today, Evernote has introduced two new iPhone apps that tie into the Evernote service but are designed for a specific purpose. Evernote Hello is an app that is all about remembering people, whilst Evernote Food is designed to preserve the “experiences, thoughts and memories” that might be attatched to a meal.

Evernote Hello is designed to help users remember people they meet by asking for a picture, a time of when they met and a context for the meet. The app is constructed so that users can simply hand over their phones (if they are comfortable with that) so that the person they are meeting can easily enter their name, contact details and take a quick picture of themselves. An interesting addition to the app is the ‘Encounters’ feature, this allows you to add details of the meetings - from location, photos and any notes.

All of your Evernote Hello entries are synchronized with Evernote so that you can view them from any device or computer. This means that you can search for people inside of Evernote. When you’re trying to find a particular note that you created during a meeting with someone, you can search for them and then look for notes created around the same time. More context!

Evernote Food isn’t just about taking photos of your meals, it’s about remembering restaurants, remembering meals with friends and family and remembering that great meal you made yourself. You’ll be able to store photos, photo captions, venues, notes and tags about any meals and then share them with Twitter, Facebook or email.

The Evernote Hello approach is focused on visuals and narrative. For example, if you’re trying to remember the name of someone you met at a big company meeting, tap on the face of anyone else you met at the same time. That will show you the encounter along with all the other people that you met together. By exploring these shared experiences, you’re able to find the people you want and strengthen your own memory.

Evernote Food and Evernote Hello are both available for free on the App Store.

First Look: Apple’s Grand Central Retail Store Unveiled

As anticipation mounts for the grand opening of the Grand Central Retail Store on December 9th, at 10 AM, Apple has soft launched their retail store by taking the covers off early, giving journalists and passerby a sneak peek at what to expect come this Friday. Techfootnote writes that the the Grand Central Retail Store is also providing free public Wi-Fi for commuters. You can find more pics past the break thanks to Ross Rubin.

Apple and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are currently under scrutiny for the 23,000 square foot space, as the MTA is accused of giving Apple an overly favorable lease for the space. While Apple is only paying $60 per square foot, the MTA has argued that Apple has already made an upfront payment to the previous tenant, and is paying to upgrade the space’s infrastructure with additions such as elevators to assist daily commuters. Apple’s $800,000 rent (for the ten year lease) is apparently small change, however, as the Grand Central Retail Store is expected to rake in $100 million a year in sales.

[via techfootnote] Thanks Dan!

Update: Apple has formally announced the opening of the Grand Central Retail Store. You can can catch the press release below.

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iBooks 1.5 Available Now, Includes Night Mode, Full-Screen Layout, New Fonts And More

A few hours ago Apple released an update to their iBooks app. Now at version 1.5, the update adds some significant features to improve the reading experience of the app. The release notes below detail those improvements:

  • Nighttime reading theme makes reading books in the dark easier on the eyes.
  • Full-screen layout lets you focus on the words without distraction.
  • iBooks now features an improved selection of fonts, including Athelas, Charter, Iowan, and Seravek.
  • Beautiful new classic covers for public domain books.
  • A redesigned annotation palette makes it easier to choose a color for your highlighted text.

You can download iBooks for free from the App Store.