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Heads Up! By Impending→

Cool new $0.99 iPhone game designed and developed by Impending for the Ellen DeGeneres Show. The game is, essentially, an iOS version of one of Ellen’s classic games: using your iPhone as a “card” to hold over your head, other players will have to help you guess the name of a celebrity, an accent, and so forth.

There are 18 themed decks in Heads Up!, and the design and interactions look fun and polished. Impending – co-creators of Clear with Realmac – have a history for producing great-looking and delightfully touch-based apps, and Heads Up is no exception. While holding a card over your head, you can tilt the iPhone up to pass, or tilt it down when you answer correctly. As shown in the announcement by Ellen, the app also records videos with the camera to capture funny moments.

It’s great to see Impending collaborating on a mainstream project like Heads Up! while keeping the same attention to detail as always. I can’t wait to play this with my friends this weekend. Check out the video below, and the game’s website here.

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Evomail Review: A Gmail Client for iPad With A Clean Design and Push Notifications

Evomail, a new Gmail client for iPad released today at $2.99, wants to fill the void left by the announced-but-never-released Sparrow for iPad, providing an alternative to the largely web-based official Gmail app and the upcoming (?) Mailbox for iPad. To differentiate itself from iOS’ native email client, Apple’s Mail app, Evomail focuses on three main areas: a new, modern design; push notifications; and tight integration with Gmail. The first version of Evomail is good, but rough around (many) edges.

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Penultimate 4.1 Adds New Premium Options, Sync Improvements→

A nice update to Penultimate has been released today. This is the first major update to hit the App Store since I first reviewed the (re)launch of Penultimate with version 4.0.

Penultimate 4.1 lets Premium Evernote users to access every item in the Paper Shop for free (which is a nice and welcome extra) and to set a passcode lock for enhanced security. There are new options to pause syncing with Evernote (good when traveling or if you simply lack an always-on Internet connection), sign out and switch users, and have the app suggest notebook titles based on location and calendar events (a feature also shared with Evernote). My favorite subtle improvement, however, is that Penultimate now shows the last page you were editing directly in a notebook’s cover.

Penultimate 4.1 is available on the App Store.

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Acorn 4.0 Brings Non-Destructive Filters, Updated Interface, And More

Flying Meat’s Acorn has been my favorite OS X image editor for a long time now. With a clean interface that, unlike more powerful solutions, never overwhelmed me with options, I use Acorn to edit the occasional photo and correct screenshots on a daily basis. Version 4.o of the app, released today, adds a number of features aimed at increasing the app’s functionalities while also slimming down interface clutter and making menus easier to organize and access. Read more

FoxTube For Mac→

Almost a year ago we highlighted FoxTube, an alternative YouTube replacement for iOS that filled in a lot of missing gaps. And even though Google’s own YouTube app (iTunes link) has replaced Apple’s and delighted many users, FoxTube is the non-Jailbroken power user’s player of choice, offering extra playback controls, media information on the lock screen, and the ability to play media in the background.

While I’m personally happy browsing YouTube on the web and using Tube Controller to integrate my Mac’s media keys, FoxTube has come to the Mac, giving anyone the power to download videos offline for later viewing, take advantage of advanced media controls, and play media through a convenient mini player. In contrast to many recent app launches for OS X, it’s even available for the latest version of Lion. FoxTube for Mac is $9.99, but you can download a free trial from the developer’s website. Due to restrictions on the App Store, I’d recommend purchasing the app from the developer to get the full set of features.

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Keeping Your iPhone Safe While Traveling→

Dave Caolo of 52 Tiger has kicked off a short series of articles on traveling with the iPhone, starting with some basic security tips that will protect your phone from thieves and help you recover it in case it’s misplaced. He’s also featuring some related apps on his homepage such as easyJet for digital boarding passes. If you or members in your family are new to the iPhone, you’ll quickly learn how to take basic precautions to safeguard your sensitive data. Lastly, I still highly recommend Tris Hussey’s hardened security tips, which will prevent thieves from disabling Find My iPhone.

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The State of Apple Rumors→

John Moltz:

It’s a weird time for those of us who’ve followed Apple rumors for years. (And I’m not the only one who has noticed.) At the risk of sounding like your prototypical hipster, today’s rumors just aren’t as good as they used to be. The devices that we hear whispers about now—a smartwatch, a television, a cheaper iPhone—seem lackluster compared to the rumored products of days past—products that, when they actually appeared, changed entire industries.

I think that a lot of this has to do with an increasing shift of rumors towards software: just in the past week, various people have spoken with their sources to detail what’s coming with iOS 7 and OS X 10.9. It is an exciting time to think about what Apple may do with an iOS redesign, better inter-app communication, iCloud improvements, and changes to core iOS apps that have basically stayed the same since iPhone OS 1.

On the hardware side, changes to existing product lines tend to be more incremental, often detailed well in advance by rumor sites, and even shown in photos of “leaked” components. But even with current products, there are interesting scenarios to talk about.

And as far as the smartwatch rumor goes, I don’t think that’s lackluster at all.

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Instacast for Mac Public Beta Now Available→

A beta release of my default podcast client for iOS. Here’s our review of Instacast 3 from last year.

Nate Boateng, who has been testing the app, posted a first look on his personal blog:

The Vemedio team once again worked with Marcelo Marfil to create a wonderful UI that is easy to understand, and looks beautiful. The interface has many of the same components as the iOS counterparts, but restructured nicely for the Mac. You have two main views; Subscriptions and Lists. Like on iOS, Subscriptions show your full list, while Lists are the equivalent of Playlists on the iPhone and iPad —showing your default and custom lists.

I look forward to playing more with the app. From what I’ve seen so far, it looks good, but, being a beta, sync reliability will need more time.

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