New Technology Reviews!.: ios4

5 apps for Diwali

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TUAW wishes its Hindu readers - <span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Diwali ki hardik shubhkamnaye</span>. This holiday rejoices in the Inner Light and the underlying reality of all things. In its spirit as the festival of lights, we offer you a special edition of "5 apps for...". Here are an assortment of iOS applications to help celebrate Diwali.</div>
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<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Interact with a Diwali diya (free) on your iOS device using swipes and puffs of air. The app provides musical background songs and various styles of ceremonial diya lamps.</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">The $0.99 Diwali Greetings lets you create and share e-mail holiday cards with friends and family</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Desi Calendar (free) provides a yearly calendar with festival dates and listings for each month full moon (purnima) and new moon (amavasya).</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Create traditional Diwali sweets ($2.99) using this iOS recipe collection.</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Celebrate with Diwali Firecrackers ($0.99) with "5 firecrackers and 25 engaging levels" by illuminating the earth with bursting firecrackers.</li>
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TUAW reader Sunilkumar K. Meena tells us, Diwali is the festival of Laxmi, the Goddess of prosperity and wealth. It is believed that Goddess Laxmi visit everyone during Diwali and brings peace and prosperity to all</div>
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TUAW reader Raghav Sethi adds that Deepavali (Diwali) is a festival where people from all age groups participate. They light earthen 'diyas' (lamps), decorate the houses, light firecrackers and invite family and friends to feasts. Lighting lamps is a way of praying for health, wealth, knowledge, peace, valor and fame.</div>
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5 apps for Diwali

TUAW wishes its Hindu readers - Diwali ki hardik shubhkamnaye . This holiday rejoices in the Inner Light and the underlying reality o...

Digital collections make comics on your iPad easy and cheap

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Our friend Macenstein has <a href="http://macenstein.com/default/2010/12/how-to-get-thousands-of-back-issue-comics-on-your-ipad-for-pennies-an-issue/">a nice tip running over on his blog</a> about how to get more comics on your iPad. The iPad is a device that seems made for comic book reading -- that display is colorful and bright, and the touchscreen lets you examine comic art from any size or angle. The problem, however, is price -- while there are some good official apps out there, and some great free comics in them, purchased comics still aren't too cheap, even compared to the real thing.<br />
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Enter Amazon, which is selling things like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/GIT-Corp-90015-Archie-Bronze/dp/B0017XHKYI/ref=sr_1_7?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1293670517&sr=1-7">this DVD of Archie Comics</a> for super cheap. For four bucks, you can get 120 digital comics. That's an amazing deal, and while there aren't a lot of those to go around, there are definitely <a href="http://www.amazon.com/40-Years-of-the-X-Men/dp/B000E28UT2/ref=sr_1_2?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1293816746&sr=1-2">other digital collections you can purchase</a> for much cheaper than actually buying them piecemeal.<br />
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Turning those comics into PDFs (or just finding them on the disc) is usually not a problem, and then just dragging the PDFs into iTunes and cracking them open in iBooks is even simpler. And voila, you've got tons and tons of comics to read on your iPad. Excellent tip, and a great way to pick up a lot more comic books to read on your next plane trip.<br />
<h6></h6><a href="http://macenstein.com/default/2010/12/how-to-get-thousands-of-back-issue-comics-on-your-ipad-for-pennies-an-issue">Source</a>

Digital collections make comics on your iPad easy and cheap

Our friend Macenstein has a nice tip running over on his blog about how to get more comics on your iPad. The iPad is a device that seems m...

Angry Birds creators: Apple still does mobile apps best

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<a href="http://technmarketing.com/iphone/peter-vesterbacka-maker-of-angry-birds-talks-about-the-birds-apple-android-nokia-and-palmhp/">In a recent interview</a>, Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio (the makers, if you haven't heard by now, of Angry Birds) says that from a developer viewpoint, Apple is the platform to go with. "They have gotten so many things right," says Vesterbacka, "and they know what they are doing and they call the shots." He says that Android's issue isn't so much about device fragmentation as it is "ecosystem fragmentation" -- by spreading itself out so much, Google's smartphone OS has "so many different shops, so many different models" running that it's tough for developers to find their own place in all of the chaos.<br />
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Vesterbacka also makes the point that much of the Angry Birds success has come simply from marketing. His two steps to succeeding on the App Store are first to "create a great app," and then to "get the message out." He repeats that a few times -- Angry Birds itself is definitely a solid game, but part of the reason that Rovio enjoys such success is their effective marketing and reaching the people who are interested in buying their game.<br />
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You can watch the full video of Vesterbacka's interview with Google after the break. Personally, I think a lot of the success that Angry Birds has had is a "right time, right place" kind of thing. That's not to take anything away from Vesterbacka and Rovio -- his insights are certainly dead-on and he clearly knows what he's doing, and the company deserves all of the success it has earned. But with a platform as big as the iPhone, there was bound to be a killer app at some point, and Angry Birds is definitely one of those.<br />
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<a href="http://technmarketing.com/iphone/peter-vesterbacka-maker-of-angry-birds-talks-about-the-birds-apple-android-nokia-and-palmhp">Source</a>

Angry Birds creators: Apple still does mobile apps best

In a recent interview , Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio (the makers, if you haven't heard by now, of Angry Birds) says that from a developer...

Mel's favorite iOS apps of 2010

I thought this might be a hard to list to come up with, but I really just took a look at the apps that I use every day, and that <img align="right" alt="" border="0" hspace="8" src="http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/9674/directv1230129373777439.jpg" vspace="8" />made it easy. I won't be including built-in apps like Safari or Mail, but the things that third-party developers have come up with that make having an iPhone such a pleasure. That's not to say that there may be other apps that compete with some that I've mentioned, and are just as good or maybe better, but these are my choices, all used day to day. So here, in no particular order, are my favorites.<br />
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<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icam-webcam-video-streaming/id296273730?mt=8">iCam</a>: What a great little app for 5 bucks. I can check on the house and pets. Using webcams that are built into my Macs or stand alones, iCam lets me see multiple cameras, hear <img align="left" alt="" border="0" hspace="8" src="http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8866/icam1230129373770939379.jpg" vspace="8" />audio, and turn motion detection on. It sends alerts so you know something is going on. iCam can also record movement if you want. It's easy to set up, the network setup avoids issues with firewalls or multiple routers and it just works. The app is universal.<br />
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<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/directv/id307386350?mt=8">DirecTV</a>: Free and really useful if you have a DirecTV DVR. Using the DirecTV app I can search for programs while away from home, set up recordings, and eliminate your anxiety about missing something important. A recent update lets you search for movies, or you can use a more global search to find programs by title, cast member names, and other criteria.<br />
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<h6></h6><a href="http://tuaw.com/tag/apps">Source</a>

Mel's favorite iOS apps of 2010

I thought this might be a hard to list to come up with, but I really just took a look at the apps that I use every day, and that made it eas...

Facebook for iOS, Tapulous see big iOS downloads over the holiday

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As expected, we're starting to see huge download numbers for iOS from over the weekend. As people unwrapped their new iOS devices, they also took to the App Store to pick up new games and apps as soon as they could. Facebook for iOS <a href="http://statistics.allfacebook.com/applications/single/facebook-for-iphone/6628568379/">saw a gigantic jump</a> in users -- as you can see in the chart above, the app saw an increase of a million users just over the holiday weekend, and it has gone up by almost 5 million users since Thanksgiving. That's pretty phenomenal, even considering that we knew the App Store would be busy.<br />
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We probably haven't seen the last of the record numbers, either -- Tapulous says that its new Tap Tap Revenge 4 app saw twice the downloads this year <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-app-download-traffic-is-2x-what-it-was-last-christmas-says-tap-tap-revenge-maker-2010-12">that the last version did last Christmas</a>. The peak downloads for that app (which is number one on the free App Store chart during the current freeze) reached <i>45,000 per hour</i> over the weekend, which is just huge. I have a feeling that a lot of devs saw some really high sales and download numbers over the Christmas holiday. We'll keep an eye out for more as the next week goes on.<br />
<h6></h6><a href="http://statistics.allfacebook.com/applications/single/facebook-for-iphone/6628568379">Source</a>

Facebook for iOS, Tapulous see big iOS downloads over the holiday

As expected, we're starting to see huge download numbers for iOS from over the weekend. As people unwrapped their new iOS devices, they...

Hyper Facts for iOS: A powerful and fun database query app

<img align="right" alt="" border="0" hspace="8" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2010/12/hyperfactsicon.jpg" vspace="8" />It's amazing what you can find with your iOS device. With the whole internet in your hands, vast databases are yours to explore with a couple of taps.<br />
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<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hyper-facts/id405845897?mt=8">Hyper Facts</a> is a new way to more easily manage these searches, and overall it works pretty well. You type in a search term, a name, or an event (like a historical event) and off goes the app to do a search. The app searches 4 different databases, although the ones used aren't specified, and there are also links to Wikipedia.<br />
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If you click the 'nearby' icon, the app gets your location via GPS and tells you interesting things around you, with links to articles.<br />
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<div><b>Gallery: Hyper Facts for iOS</b><br />
<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2010/12/hyperfacts2-12-24_thumbnail.jpg" title="" /><img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2010/12/hyperfacts3-12-24_thumbnail.jpg" title="" /><img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2010/12/hyperfacts4-12-24_thumbnail.jpg" title="" /><img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2010/12/hyperfacts5-12-24_thumbnail.jpg" title="" /></div><h6></h6><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hyper-facts/id405845897?mt=8">Source</a>

Hyper Facts for iOS: A powerful and fun database query app

It's amazing what you can find with your iOS device. With the whole internet in your hands, vast databases are yours to explore with a c...

AirMedia Player for Windows: Stream from iOS to your Windows PC

<img align="right" alt="" border="0" hspace="8" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2010/12/airmediaplayer-for-windows.jpg" vspace="8" />We've been chronicling the fast evolution of AirPlay media players that allow owners of iOS 4.2 devices to stream media to their Macs and Linux machines. Now, from developer Apostolos Georgiadis comes word of <a href="http://apogeorgiadis.blogspot.com/p/airmediaplayer-for-windows_22.html">AirMedia Player for Windows</a>.<br />
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The player requires Windows XP, Vista or 7, the Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 SP1 (<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=ab99342f-5d1a-413d-8319-81da479ab0d7&displaylang=en">available here</a>), Bonjour for Windows (included with iTunes or the <a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/DL999">Bonjour Services for Windows</a>) and QuickTime (<a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">available here</a>). Once installed, users can stream video or music from their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch straight to a Windows PC.<br />
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<strike>A short video showing the AirMedia Player for Windows in action is available on the next page</strike>. Looks like Apostolos has pulled his video; however, the app page is still up and it's been <a href="http://apogeorgiadis.blogspot.com/p/airmediaplayer-for-windows_22.html">revised to version 1.0.6.</a><br />
<a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/22/airmedia-player-for-windows-stream-from-ios-to-your-windows-pc/"></a> <br />
<h6></h6><a href="http://apogeorgiadis.blogspot.com/p/airmediaplayer-for-windows.html">Source</a>

AirMedia Player for Windows: Stream from iOS to your Windows PC

We've been chronicling the fast evolution of AirPlay media players that allow owners of iOS 4.2 devices to stream media to their Macs an...