TomTom reveals new update, enables navigation via Twitter and Facebook

TomTom has unveiled its latest update for the popular iPhone and iPad navigation app. Version 1.10 will include a couple of new features like Twitter and Facebook integration. The integration will allow users to navigate to friends, places and even certain events much more easily.

The TomTom App for iPhone and iPad will be the first to use social networks as a source for turn-by-turn navigation. It can automatically plan routes based on information from Facebook events, places and friends. Drivers can also use the App to share their destination and arrival time on Twitter, Facebook, by email and SMS text.

The update will be available in the first quarter of 2012 and will be free for customers who have already paid for the app previously.

Source: TomTom PR

Shazam launches new Player app, helps you sing along to your favorite tunes

Shazam has launched a new app called Shazam Player which can be used as an alternative to the inbuilt Music app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Shazam Player lets you stream lyrics for supported tunes as well as view a huge store of information on the band or artist you are currently listening to.

Switch to a music player with a difference – Shazam Player™ the NEW app from Shazam! Why just listen to your music when you can now see streaming lyrics, watch YouTube videos and read reviews of your favorite tracks and artists! Get to know your music with Shazam Player. It’s your music. Shazam Player lets you do more with it.

• Bring your music to life with LyricPlay. See streaming lyrics in time to the music – you’ll always have the words to your favorite songs with you
• Share the soundtrack of your day on Facebook and Twitter
• Watch YouTube videos and concert clips
• Find tour dates for the bands and artists you’re into
• Manage your music – see your iTunes playlists and create new playlists on the fly
• Select your favorite tracks and hide ones you don’t want to hear
• Add to your music – buy new tracks on iTunes from within the app
• View music by artist/album/title and use the Track Tray to see all the great Shazam features available for each song
• Top tracks – a changing list of LyricPlay tracks – buy them straight from the app if you don’t already own them
• Identify new music you’re hearing by instantly launching the Shazam App

Shazam launches new Player app, lets you get to know your jams better

Shazam today released its first fully new app since the launch of the familiar self-titled music tagging app. The new, simply-named Shazam Player offers up streaming lyrics, YouTube videos, concert dates and lets you make playlists on the go. You can also share your favorites via Facebook and Twitter, to properly avoid becoming a musical shut-in. Press release and video after the break.

Continue reading Shazam launches new Player app, lets you get to know your jams better

Shazam launches new Player app, lets you get to know your jams better originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily iPhone App: CraigsPro+

I'll admit it. I do a lot of my shopping on Craigslist. It's a fantastic website to find phones, car tires, appliances, furniture and more. I'm a patient buyer, though, and wait until I find an excellent deal. Searching for the lowest price is not that hard when you use an app like CraigsPro+.

CraigsPro+ is one of several Craigslist apps in the App Store. Like the others, it lets you search Craigslist, but it has several features that set it apart from the competition. First, it lets you search multiple Craigslist locations. I live about an hour from NH and can easily search listings for both Maine and NH. I can also add in Boston, if I wanted to travel that far. If you're traveling, you can let app use your GPS location to find the appropriate Craigslist site.

CraigsPro+ also lets you setup "search agents". As their name implies, search agents will regularly ping Craigslist for your search term. When it finds a listing that meets your criteria, the app will send you a push notification. This quick notification is essential when you're searching for a hot item like an iPhone or an iPad. Once you find a listing, you can use the app to call or email the seller.

The app also has several other smaller features that make it a pleasure to use. It has a favorites list, so you can save a listing. There's a mapping feature which lets you map and get driving directions to an item's location. The map is extremely useful for those who live in larger state. It also lets you add search filters for select categories and prices. You can also choose to see only those listings with photos, which is a must have when you're buying a high-priced item like a car.

If you're a seller as well as buyer, CraigsPro+ also lets you login to your Craigslist account and manage your listings. The app supports multiple accounts and lets you choose which one to use when you login. Once you login, you can view and edit both live and expired listings. You can also create a new listing on your iPhone and use your camera or photo gallery to upload pictures.

As you can tell, I genuinely like CraigsPro+. The app has several features that make it easy to find a bargain on Craigslist. It has an intuitive interface, which means you don't have to spend a lot of time setting things up. The only missing feature is a dedicated browse function. You can leave the search function blank and find all the listings in a category, but it's still a search-driven result. Some people may miss the free-form browsing, but you can always use mobile Safari to browse the Craigslist site.

The CraigsPro+ app is available in the App Store for US$1.99. The developer Escargot Studios has several other Craigslist apps, but none seem to be as full-featured as the CraigsPro+ version.

Daily iPhone App: CraigsPro+ originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: CraigsPro+ originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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XtremeMac rolls out three new mobile chargers for iDevice devotees

XtremeMac has just unveiled a troika of new iDevice-friendly chargers: the 3 in 1 USB Mobile Cable, InCharge Boost and InCharge Micro Boost. Announced at CES today, the 3 in 1 cable, as its name suggests, packs three different connectors on a single cable, offering USB to microUSB, mini USB and 30pin connectivity to owners of Apple-branded devices and "most" tablets, smartphones or cameras. The portable InCharge Boost, meanwhile, combines a 2300 mAh lithium polymer rechargeable battery, USB port and 30pin connector, designed explicitly for iPhone, iPad and iPhone users on the go. Rounding out the trio is the comparatively pared down InCharge Micro Boost -- a rechargeable 500mAh battery, coupled with a USB to microUSB connector. It also features a built-in carabineer, meaning you can charge your iDevice while climbing a rock. Or something. No details on pricing yet, but the devices are slated to begin shipping during Q1 of this year. Press release? It's after the break.

Continue reading XtremeMac rolls out three new mobile chargers for iDevice devotees

XtremeMac rolls out three new mobile chargers for iDevice devotees originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite No Formal Presence, 250 Apple Employees Registered To Attend CES 2012

Reuters reports that around 250 Apple employees are registered to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year. Given Apple’s practice of giving trade shows like CES and Macworld a miss, at least officially, this number is surprising, … Continue reading →

Ben Heck guts an iCade to build iPhone gamepad, salutes CES in the process (video)

While the majority of the tech industry prepares to go all in on this week's CES madness, a certain Mr. Ben Heck's been busying himself with an homage to the Vegas event. In the spirit of consumer electronics, he's gone ahead and retrofitted a gamepad enclosure to Apple's iPhone. Using a modified circuit board taken from an iCade, Heck was able to craft a plastic enclosure and buttons, made with a 3D printer, to neatly surround the device and borrowed silicon. Click on past the break to watch Ben walkthrough what he does best, which is to say, not gaming.

Continue reading Ben Heck guts an iCade to build iPhone gamepad, salutes CES in the process (video)

Ben Heck guts an iCade to build iPhone gamepad, salutes CES in the process (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T Mobile CTO: next iPhone chipset ‘will support AWS’

T Mobile CTO: next iPhone chipset 'will support AWS' originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s ‘Education Announcement’ Scheduled for January 19 in New York City

The Loop reports that Apple has sent out media invitations for an "education announcement" to be made at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on Thursday, January 19.

Word of the event first surfaced last week, and sources have indicated that the announcement will relate to publishing, with digital textbooks perhaps playing a major role.


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Apple announces January 19 media event in New York

According to Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, Apple has sent out the above invitation to a special media event to be held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on January 19.

Join us for an education announcement in the Big Apple.

No word yet on the exact agenda but rumors have circulated that it may involve text books, easier iBooks publication, iTunes U, and other related initiatives.

Source: The Loop

Apple to Hold Event On January 19th in NYC For an “Education Announcement”

The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple has just reported that Apple has started sending out invitations for this month’s media event.  Based on the invitation the event will be focused on Education. Dalrymple reports: Apple on Wednesday sent out an invitation to … Continue reading →

Daily Apps: PolygonFlux, The Tooth That’s on the Loose!, No More Diets, Ripple HD, Countdown

PolygonFlux: PolygonFlux lets you experience the flow of energy inside a polygon. In simplest terms, it traces the path of a point bouncing around inside a polygon of your choice, generating a pretty pattern.

• $0.99 for iPad – App Store link

The Tooth That’s on the Loose!: Set in the Old West, “The Tooth that’s on the Loose!” tells the story of the character T.B.Wiggly, who is a slippery, shifty little varmint. The legend is told in narrative fashion by an old coot named Sheriff Tex. It is a tall tale…just tall in a small way! So pull up your bootstraps, saddle up, and mosey on over partner and enjoy!

• $1.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

No More Diets: Dr. Jenn Berman’s Guide to Overcoming Overeating and Losing Weight: Let psychotherapist, author, television and radio host Dr. Jenn Berman guide you through the No More Diets program so you can develop a healthy relationship with food and lose weight once and for all.

• $3.99 for and iPad – App Store link

Ripple HD: Who would have thought that swiping your finger through digital water could be so therapeutic?? Perfect for anyone wanting to relax, unwind or think more clearly.

• $0.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Countdown: Tells you exactly how many days are remaining for that big day!

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

T-Mobile getting more AWS spectrum, but will they get the iPhone?

AllThingsD was able to sit down with T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm, who offered insight into why the carrier hasn’t yet come to a deal with Apple to officially carry the iPhone on their network.

“The key reason we didn’t have the iPhone in the past is we are on different band than globally the market was,” Humm said. “That is something which will change over time. Chipsets are also evolving to be able to allow for more bands.”

This, however, will change with the failed merger attempts from AT&T. When the deal fell apart, T-Mobile walked away with a cool $3 billion and additional AWS spectrum needed to support a device like the iPhone.

However, Humm also pointed out that, even with more spectrum and newer chipsets, Apple would still need to add that AWS support, or T-Mobile will remain without an iPhone.

Source: AllThingsD

Shazam Releases Music Player App For iOS Devices

Shazam – developers of one of the most popular song recognition apps in the App Store have just released their own Music player for iOS devices called Shazam Player, which includes features streaming lyrics, social sharing, smart lists and more. … Continue reading →

Penultimate updated with Dropbox and Evernote support

The original handwriting app, Penultimate, is better than ever with its recent update that brings support for Dropbox and Evernote. You can send your notes directly to Dropbox or Evernote and setup Penultimate to automatically backup to Dropbox so that all your notes are always available in the cloud.

• Serious Dropbox integration: Send notebooks and pages directly to your Dropbox, or enable automatic backup to be sure you always have a copy of your notes in the cloud. Open Penultimate files from your Dropbox.
• Evernote support. Evernote’s handwriting recognition is a great fit for Penultimate users. You can send notebooks and notes to your account for searching there later. Very simple signup in the app if you want to give it a spin.
• Open new workflows by “Open”ing your notebooks and pages in other apps on iPad.
• Copied images can be pasted into Penultimate, and copied ink can be pasted into other apps.
• Now available in Chinese (simplified) and Korean.
• As always, many other improvements and updates.

Penultimate is available on the iPad and on sale for $0.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

App Giveaway: Movies HD for iPad

Movies HD is an iPad app that provides you with a way to catalogue your movies. It will also look up data about your movies so that instead of just movie and TV series titles, you have access to all details. Additionally, if you lend a movie to a friend, this too can be catalogued so that you can easily keep track of who has your movies.

Movies HD is a movie and TV series catalog application with stunning graphics. It allows you to quickly add, find and view movies in your library (with the ability to add new movies by seeking by title using lots of data sources – so all movie details are filled in for you!). It also allows to lend movies to friends, so you can easily keep track of who you gave that copy of “Quantum of Solace” to.

• Shelf view or list view
• Custom genres
• Coverflow movie browsing
• Add movies by barcode scanning (on iPad2)
• Supports major bluetooth barcode scanners to quickly add movies to your library (like the Opticon OPN-2002) (all iPad models)
• Quickfind ™ your movies (based on director, author, title, location, …)
• Filter movies by media, lend-to, genres, director and actors
• Email your movie list
• Random movie selection by shaking the iPad
• Fully customizable movie catalog
• Small labels to identify sorting details (based on sorting mode)
• Handles all modern media (DVD, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD) as well as oldfashioned media (VHS, 35mm, 16mm) + ability to add custom media
• Movies are shown using their cover (and optionally their title)
• Movies can be lend to Contacts
• Backup & restore

Giveaway

The gold folks at Netwalk have given us promo codes to give away to 5 lucky readers! For a chance to win, let us know how many movies you have in your home collection in the comments below!

Movies HD is available on the iPad for $4.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Rumor: Apple starts issuing iPad 3 build orders for March release

According to japanese news site macotakara, Apple has issued build orders to Foxconn and Pegatron for the iPad 3, which is expected to hit in March.

This first lot production implements LCD’s, which are produced by Sharp Electronics Corporation, and aims to be shipped at early March, source told.

It has been rumored that Sharp will produce the new IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) iPad 3 panels, with a purported Retina display resolution of 2048×1536.

If Apple intends to stay on their spring release schedule, it makes a lot of sense for them to be getting orders in place now.

Source: macotakara

T-Mobile USA CTO Reveals Next iPhone Chipset Will Support Carrier’s 3G Network

Currently T-Mobile USA is the only major carrier in the U.S that does not offer Apple’s iPhone on its network. Until now T-Mobile has always maintained that the ball is in Apple’s court. However, in an interview with AllThingsD’s Ina Fried, … Continue reading →

Seth Green shows us his new media sharing app, Shodogg

Celebrities have tendency to bubble up across CES, but it’s not often one of them is an honest-to-goodness exhibitor. Seth Green, the most excellent comedian behind Robot Chicken and a big player in Family Guy, used CES 2012 to announce his investment and advisory role with an app called Shodogg. It’s a pretty simple HTML5 app which lets you quickly share mobile videos to your PC, tablet, Google TV, or just about any other web-enabled device. They’re aiming to launch a native iPhone app in March, and given the heavy “platform agnostic” angle, you can expect this on Android sometime soon.

Sharing streaming video can be tricky if the source doesn’t want to play nice, and even when they do, DLNA is still farm from perfect. Though there’s definitely room for an app like Shodogg, I think the biggest thing about it is that Seth Green is involved. Call me shallow. It’s just good to see smart celebrities getting entrepreneurial. Who knows, maybe if more of them focus on app development, the next generation of programmers could enjoy some amount of social prestige.

You can find out more about Shodogg over here, or jump right in and sign up for the alpha.

T-Mobile USA Claims Next iPhone Chipset Will Support Carrier’s AWS Bands

With the launch of the iPhone 4S, T-Mobile USA is now the only one of the four major U.S. carriers to not offer the iPhone, due in large part to the carrier's use of the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum band for its 3G network, a situation that so far would require Apple to develop specific hardware compatible with the network. Some had hoped that the situation would be rectified over time by AT&T's planned acquisition of T-Mobile, but that deal has fallen apart in the face of scrutiny from regulators.


AllThingsD now reports on comments from T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm again acknowledging that the AWS issue is an important reason for the carrier's lack of the iPhone, but reporting that the issue will be addressed both by migration of T-Mobile's spectrum bands and by new chipsets supporting AWS.

“The key reason we didn’t have the iPhone in the past is we are on different band than globally the market was,” Humm said. “That is something which will change over time. Chipsets are also evolving to be able to allow for more bands.”

As always, though, the decision is up to Apple, Humm acknowledges.

CNET has more on the topic from T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray, who specifically claims that Apple's plans for the next iPhone chipset include support for AWS.

Ray, however, said T-Mobile's unique spectrum would have required extra work to ensure the iPhone ran correctly on its network. But the next chipset that Apple plans to use will be able to overcome that hurdle, he said.

"The next chipset will support AWS," he said in an interview with CNET. "The challenge that existed in the past will go away."

Ray said he has seen the roadmap of chipsets that Apple plans to use, and knows it has that capability. But he noted Apple could choose to ignore that capability and not strike a deal with T-Mobile.

New LTE networks are another factor in the discussion, with rumors suggesting that the iPhone 5 may indeed support the faster technology with greater unification of network standards across carriers. But with LTE still being built out and carriers having achieved varying stages of progress on their efforts, the iPhone and other smartphones will continue to require compatibility with 3G networks as a fallback option where LTE won't yet be available.


Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
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