Acapella Group Rocks Out Madonna With iPads [Video]

Finnish acapella group Viisi got their hands (literally) on some iPads and thought it’d be nice to rock out some tunes with the tablets. After all, it’s not that the Internet hasn’t seen examples of Apple’s iDevices music before. The result, as you can guess, it’s pretty sweet.

The group made a cover of Madonna’s Material Girl using their voices to create harmonies (the main concept behind acapella performances) and ran a bunch of iPads as background instruments. I can spot a few pianos apps in there.

Check out the video below. [via TUAW]

Microsoft Launches Revamped Bing App for iPhone

A few hours ago the official Bing app for iPhone received a major update, which brings it to version 2.0 and introduces a lot of new (and nice) features I’m sure will make several iOS users reconsider Microsoft’s search engine app.

Bing 2.0 comes with new sharing possibilities and deeper integration with Facebook, Foursquare and Windows Live Messenger. You can check in without leaving Bing and even check on Facebook Likes in search results. While I’m not sure about the usefulness of “liking” a search results, it’s nice to see Microsoft committed to making the search engine more “social”. Perhaps it’s not the right path to follow, but at least something’s moving. Overall, the app’s layout has been slightly tweaked and improved to make room for a cleaner design and more intuitive navigation. Yes, it feels even more Metro than before – not sure if this is the right approach on iOS but again, Microsoft’s trying to keep its brand identity consistent across platforms.

The new Bing app also makes it easy and quick to find restaurants and theaters. The new Plans feature (again, with Facebook integration) lets you plan a night out with just a few taps.

The biggest addition to the iPhone client is what Microsoft calls Bing Streetside. Similar to Google’s StreetView but really geared towards simplicity and multi-touch gestures, Streetside enables you to know more about a specific location before visiting it. You can pinch and zoom and get a better visual of the neighborhood, tap to focus on the details and see overlays of business listings and store fronts.

Bing 2.0 is available for free here. Check out the full changelog and video (courtesy of Engadget) below. Read more

Meet The First iPhone 5…Clone

Is there anything better than waking up to find out that Apple has announced the grand opening of the Mac App Store? How about an iPhone 5?

Easy, folks. It’s a clone. Demoed in a video in Chinese, Taiwanese, or something. Whatever. Still, as 9to5mac suggests, the thing is probably running Android with some custom iPhone skin on it, so you don’t have to worry about this being a real iPhone with a different case. The truth is, someone actually took the time to imagine his own iPhone 5 and build it.

I don’t know if the device it’s up for sale. What I’m sure of is, I don’t want the iPhone 5 to look like this. Video below.[via] Read more

Firemint Releases Flight Control Free, Updates Real Racing With Game Center Support

December 16th has been a day to remember for the folks at Firemint. Not only did they release Real Racing 2 for iPhone (which is collecting rave reviews from all the major game blogs), they also updated the original Real Racing with Game Center support and released a free version of Flight Control.

Real Racing for iPhone, available here at $4.99, now comes with full Game Center integration: the app now comes with 4-player online multiplayer (instead of Real Racing 2 16-player mode), leaderboards, achievements, random matches and in-game results. Considering that Real Racing has been around for months, it’s great that Firemint is still giving its previous customers support and updates. Of course, if you want the real multiplayer you’ll have to go with Real Racing 2, which is available at $9.99 here.

Flight Control Free for iPhone is basically a version of the popular game with less maps, achievements – less everything. It’s cool if you’ve never tried Flight Control in your lifetime, but I’m usually not so excited about free versions with limitations. Still, it’s available here.

Spotify iPhone App: Faster, Retina-ready

Spotify is still nowhere to be seen in the US – although they keep saying that the service will find its way to America, eventually – but it’s doing quite well in Europe. I, for instance, have been a subscriber for over a year now and I can say Spotify has changed the way I think of music availability and my personal library. I don’t care about downloads and purchases anymore.

The Spotify app for Mac has always been a sexy piece of software with neat functionalities, but the iPhone app is just better. It’s a mobile client that allows you to access your music anywhere, even on 3G, with high quality streams and the possibility to check on your favorite tracks and playlists.

With the latest updates released in iTunes last night, Spotify for iPhone got even better. The app now starts up to 6 times faster, and I can tell you this is a difference you will spot. The app sports a new loading indicator and it takes seconds to load up your account info, playlists and new releases. Bug fixes and updated graphics for the Retina Display aside, the developers changed the way the client handled saved state on each relaunch. Now you no longer have to wait for an internet connection to kick in before using the app. It feels immediate.

Spotify for iPhone requires a premium subscription and it’s only available in the UK App Store. Full changelog below. Read more

Developers, Submit Your Mac Apps By December 31

With the Mac App Store now officially launching on January 6, it’s no surprise Apple has put a deadline for developers to submit their Mac apps. If you’re a developer and you’d like to have your app ready for the grand opening of the new Store, you’ll have to submit it by December 31.

Submissions for Mac apps opened on November 4th. The first public rejections are already in, and it will be interesting to see what kind of apps will be featured by the official opening of the Mac App Store.

The Mac App Store Will Open On January 6

Apple just announced that the Mac App Store will officially open on January 6. It will be available in 90 countries at launch, and will be based on the simple purchase / download model introduced with the App Store in 2008. The Mac App Store will be available as a free download in Software Update for Snow Leopard users, which suggests that Mac OS X 10.6.6 might be available the same day.

Previous reports confirmed that developers will be able to use the same app names across the iOS and Mac App Store, won’t be able to submit demos and trials and won’t have the possibility to generate promo codes for Mac apps.

Press release below.

Read more

Should Apple Own Factories Again?→

Should Apple Own Factories Again?

Horace Dediu:

I’m not an expert in this area, but as a student of disruption I see signs of opportunity to re-engineer the manufacturing business model. The patterns from history are plain to see: Centralized systems get broken down and re-aligned with new bases of competition. Value chains disintegrate and re-integrate as profit algorithms change.

The new algorithm says you need to ramp production quickly (up and down) and to increase “product turns” from one to two each year. Each ramp needs to be even bigger than they are now. Maybe by a factor of two. Products should be built closer to where they are consumed to drive costs and delays out of transportation and tariffs. Carbon footprints need to be reduced.

Sounds daunting. But the rewards could be enormous.

Give Ive his own factory ? Just think about it.

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Doodle Jump “Christmas Special” Now Available

The trend in the App Store these days is to release “Christmas Editions” of apps. While I wouldn’t know about  “Twitterrific: Santa’s Tweets” and “Instapaper: Christmas Reading” special versions, it seems like the strategy is quite working for games. Otherwise, why would Rovio bother releasing a “Season” version of Angry Birds?

Lima Sky is the latest development team to follow the trend and release Doodle Jump Christmas Special at $0.99 in the App Store. The game is simply a remix of the original Doodle Jump with just a new background and a few Christmas-themed enemies, but boy it looks cute. It’s got Retina Display-ready graphics and all the Game Center features seen in the standard edition.

Doodle Jump Christmas Special is available now at $0.99 in the App Store.