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SleepBot for iOS Released – Sleep Tracking and Smart Cycle Alarm
02 days ago
SleepBot LLC today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of SleepBot for iOS. SleepBot, the critically acclaimed sleep cycle tracker and smart alarm and is finally available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch! Featured in WIRED, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Mashable, and more!
SleepBot is an intuitive smart alarm and beautiful sleep cycle tracker that lets you record movements and sounds throughout the night. Customize how you want to sleep and wake up gently each morning during your lightest sleep
SleepBot
phase. Listen to soothing ambient soundtracks as you fall asleep.
SleepBot is the most complete sleep tracker, smart alarm, and ambient sound machine in the App Store:
* Smart wake up: Gradual alarm based on movements and noise within 30 minutes before first alarm
* Multiple alarms capability: Only smart alarm that lets you set multiple alarms as alerts or precautions
* Movement tracking: Adjustable sensitivity, easily compare with sound graphs
* Sound tracking: Detailed sound graphs let you play back noise with a tap
* 10 custom designed alarm soundtracks designed for Smart Wake-up
* Background mode: sleep tracking continues even in the background
* Long-term Trend graphs: length, sleep/wake times, pattern for sleep quality over time
* Statistics: Analyze any time range to see sleep debt, average sleep, etc.
* Ambient Noise: Soothing soundtracks to help you gently fall asleep
* Sleep Help: Find out how to fall asleep or stay awake from quick action lists
* Automatic Sync: backup and restore sleep data, and view it online
* Export: Share sleep entries, graphs, and stats as images or csv
SleepBot is recognized by the United States National Institute of Health and the National Academy of Engineering. Simple to use and understand, SleepBot utilizes the most accurate tracking algorithm of any sleep app on the App Store (dare to compare to any application on iOS or Android).
SleepBot 1.0 for iOS is free and available worldwide exclusively through the iTunes App Store in the Health & Fitness category. SleepBot will only work on iOS 5.0+ devices.
SleepBot – Free – Download Now
Apple Updates iMovie for Mac
02 days ago
Apple has released a minor update to their movie editing app iMovie for Mac to address some issues and to improve some functionality. The new version, 9.0.9 for those keeping score at home, addresses an issue where the app would not recognise a video camera connected to your Mac. The release notes do not cover any specific video cameras impacted so it is safe to assume that for a “bug fix” release it was likely several different makes and models.
For iMovie iOS users there is an update in this release for you. The import process from your iPad or iPhone to iMovie on your Mac has been improved with better compatibility between the two platforms. This is good news for those who want to edit on-the-go on your iPhone then do final edits on your Mac.
The release notes also have the usual “stability improvements” which are usually smaller, less impacting issues with the app.
The update is free in the Mac App Store and is available for download now. For those who have not purchased iMovie, the update is included in the latest version you can purchase which is also in the Mac App Store for $14.99. iMovie for iOS is $9.99 and available in the iTunes App Store.
iMovie for Mac – $14.99 – Download Now
Camera Plus Pro Brings Sharing Photos on Instagram and Tumblr
02 days ago
Global Delight today released a major update to their iPhone camera app, Camera Plus Pro. The update has a number of new exciting additions in the photo and video sharing options, instant saving to the device’s default library and user interface changes.
Camera Plus Pro has great photo capture controls and photo editing features to make everyday photos look beautiful and professional. With this new update, Camera Plus Pro users can share their photos to Instagram and Tumblr. The app allows users to share their filtered and creative time-lapse videos on Tumblr.
Camera Plus Pro excels over the stock camera on the iPhone and iPod touch because of its great photo & video shooting
Camera Plus Pro
controls like anti-shake for non-blurry photos, countdown timer, touch-to-snap, separate exposure and white balance lock, video zoom and more. These beautiful photos and videos can now be saved directly to Camera Roll, previewed or shared instantly.
The app now sports a new share user interface. The videos can be uploaded at 640×480 (480p) resolution to YouTube, Facebook and Tumblr.
Camera Plus Pro is a simple yet professional quality camera app for shooting, beautifying and sharing great photos & videos on the iPhone and iPod touch. Camera Plus Pro has great photo & video shooting controls, photo editing features, gorgeous collection of photo filters, some unique features like password protection of photos and videos, and time-lapse videos and instant sharing to the popular sites.
Camera Plus Pro 4.6 can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store for just $1.99 (USD), and all the features can be enjoyed on an iPhone 5, 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 5 and iPod touch with camera.
Camera Plus Pro – $1.99 – Download Now
Square Announces The Square Stand
02 days ago
Square has introduced a completely re-imagined Point-of-Sale register and it looks beautiful. The new Square Stand integrates with the Square Register app and provides a stand and card-swipe solution for retailers. The stand, priced at $299, gives retailers the ability to quickly and easily process credit card transactions or tie it into the Square cash register for a complete and low cost PoS solution.
The Square Stand was announced yesterday and will be available in the United States on July 8th. There is no mention in the Press Release of when it will be available in other parts of the world.
Here is the full Press Release
Square, the company making commerce easy for everyone, today announced Square Stand, beautiful new hardware for
The Square Stand
brick and mortar businesses that turns an iPad into a complete point of sale. With local businesses increasingly tearing out their old point of sale systems to run Square Register, Square Stand gives merchants a remarkable new way to manage and grow their business, all for the price of a cash register.
“Local business owners take as a given that they need an ugly, slow, expensive, and complicated point of sale system cluttering their counter,” said Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Square. “Square Stand is elegant, fast, affordable, and easy to use. Whether you’re selling cupcakes, cardigans, or cappuccinos, running your business with Square has never been easier.”
Ready to use in minutes, Square Stand works with Square Register, the free point of sale application, and gives merchants access to real-time analytics, robust reporting, and a delightful experience for their customers. Square Stand features an integrated card reader that keeps information secure from swipe to payment, and easily connects to the hardware accessories businesses need, including a receipt printer, kitchen printer, cash drawer, and barcode scanner. Merchants can lock their iPad in place and secure the stand to their countertop, making it easy to tilt and rotate the stand and complete orders quickly. Square Stand works with an iPad 2 or 3, with a version for iPads with Lightning connectors available later this year.
Square Stand costs $299 and is available for pre-order today at squareup.com/stand. Customers will also be able to purchase Square Stand in Best Buy stores and other select retailers starting the week of July 8.
Starting May 15, local merchants across the US will be running their business using Square Stand:
- Bang Bang Pie Shop: one location in Chicago
- Blue Bottle Coffee: 8 locations in the Bay Area and New York City
- Cafe Grumpy: 4 locations in New York City
- Cartel Coffee Labs: 5 locations in the greater Phoenix area
- Crema Coffee House: one location in Denver
- Federal Donuts: 2 locations in Philadelphia
- Morelli’s Ice Cream: 3 locations in Atlanta
- Olive & Vine: one location in Houston
- Pitango Gelato: 5 locations in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
- Red Chair Salon: one location in San Francisco
- Salt & Straw: 2 locations in Portland
- Schodorf’s Luncheonette: one location in Los Angeles
- 7 Seas Brewery: one location in Seattle
Square is now processing over $15 billion in payments on an annualized basis, excluding Starbucks. The company’s recent growth has been fueled by increased adoption by brick and mortar merchants, who are using Square as a full point of sale system. While Square usage continues to grow on smartphones, it is growing at a faster rate on iPads: iPad customers now represent nearly 50% of total payments processed by Square. The average payment volume processed by these customers is more than double the average volume processed by Square customers using smartphones.
About Square, Inc.
Square is making commerce easy for everyone. Starting with a free credit card reader for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, Square Reader allows anyone to accept credit cards anywhere, anytime, for a low transaction rate of 2.75 percent per swipe, with no hidden fees. Square Register serves as a full point of sale system for businesses to accept payments, manage items, and share menu and location information. Square Wallet, available in the US, is the most seamless way to pay, enabling individuals to pay at their favorite local businesses, discover new ones nearby, explore menu listings, and store receipts. Founded in 2009, and headquartered in San Francisco, Square is currently available in the U.S. and Canada. More information is available at squareup.com.
Anyone Can Learn To Meditate Using The Mindfulness App
13 days ago
The swedish company MindApps has developed a great tool to get started with meditation and with the vision: To make the whole world to discover meditation! The Mindfulness App 1.6.1 is a tool for everyone to increase their awareness in life. It helps the user with the most difficult aspect of Mindfulness practice – namely to remember to be mindful.
Meditation has many effects that makes practitioners more harmonious people and more open to the world around them.
It is scientifically proven that meditation improves sleep, results in better relationships, stronger immune system and
The Mindfulness App Can Guide You Through Meditation
greater self-awareness. It reduces feelings of stress, whilst at the same time it makes us more effective. In other words meditation improves overall quality of life, as well as the ability to succeed at everyday life and overcome negative thoughts.
It’s easy to get started with The Mindfulness App and regular meditation does not need not be particularly time consuming. Shorter meditations more often is better than longer meditations more seldom and scientific studies have shown that positive effects of meditation are noticeable in the body only after a few weeks of 20 minutes regular meditation.
Brief about the app:
* There are different types of meditations in the app that suits the moment best – for example if one has some time in the subway, on the bus, in a queue or just want to sit for a while
* By setting reminders at times, days and locations of choice a message will appear on the screen when it’s time to meditate
* The meditations are voice guided by an authorized mindfulness teacher but there are also an option to meditate in silence with bells ringing at different times
* There is also an option for users to design a custom meditation for a specified amount of time
* Completed meditations are stored in the statistics section for the possibility to follow how the meditation practice is developing over time
* Through the Mindfulness App users can “call themselves up” from time to time to check whether you really are there
* The Mindfulness app is a great tool for everyone who wants to become more present in their life, both beginners and more experienced practitioners
The Mindfulness App 1.6.1 is $1.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Health & Fitness category.
The Mindfulness App – $1.99 – Download Now
Photo Comparison From All iPhone Models
0There have been a lot of comparisons between the newest iPhone to the previous generation. It happens every year now and we see where this tweak or that improvement is made. Nowhere has it been more dramatic in the iPhone than in the camera and the photo quality it produces. Now Lisa Bettany has put together the ultimate stare-and-compare from every iPhone generation made.
And it is impressive.
Starting with the original iPhone, Lisa has put together a series of photos of the same objects or scenes so you can see the dramatic improvement that Apple has made with the iPhone’s camera over the years. Not only has the overall image quality improved but so has white balance, colour saturation, hues and the like. With each generation of iPhone, Apple has managed to improve the camera incrementally. We know this when we see the spec sheets with every new iPhone – but this visually puts it out there and only with it do you realise how dramatic the improvements have been over time.
Photo comparison from the iPhone to the iPhone 5
Check out the full article and all of the different shots she has on her Camera+ site. There are dozens of shots on the site comparing the different iPhone models to give you a real understanding of the improvements.
Bellyfish Endless Scroller Game Released for iOS
04 days ago
Duello Games, the creators of worldwide hit iSlash with 20 million downloads and counting, is proud to announce another highly engaging mobile game, Bellyfish 1.0.1, available now on the App Store and featured by Apple in more than 100 countries. Bellyfish, a brand new approach to the endless games genre, is an underwater adventure where users guide our fearless hero to avoid obstacles, fight enemies, and swim as high possible so he can reach new objectives and quests in the beautiful underwater scenery.
Playing as Bellyfish, gamers guide our hero with simple and intuitive controls freely in all directions while avoiding
Bellyfish is a fun & addictive vertical scroller game
enemies and collecting coins that can be used for power-up upgrades and to purchase extra items. Amusing surprises add to the challenge while social integration lets users compete with their friends and create an extremely engaging gameplay experience.
Joyful and upbeat wii-like mobile game play, endless adventure full of surprises, various power-ups, and high quality graphics and animations set the game apart from the crowd.
Feature Highlights:
* An original endless swimmer with beautiful graphics and animations
* Sensitive and intuitive controls to swim freely in all directions
* Unique power-ups to fight your enemies
* Funny surprises to add to the challenge
* Score markers to compete with your friends
* Lots of quests to complete
* Game Center Leaderboards & Achievements
Bellyfish 1.0.1 is only $0.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category.
Bellyfish (Universal App) – .99 Cents – Download Now
HTC First Discontinued by AT&T – Death of The Facebook Phone?
0Not exactly a glowing review.
After only a month-and-a-half since being announced, the HTC First, or Facebook Phone, appears to set to meet an ugly death with U.S. carrier AT&T. BGR is reporting that the communications giant will be returning all unsold stock of the HTC First back to HTC as it quickly distances itself from the product.
Last week AT&T dropped the price to .99 cents. This is never a good sign after a device has only been on the market a
Facebook Home
month - even in the every changing Android world. But BGR sources point to less than 15,000 units sold nationally after the price drop which for all intents and purposes was the death bell tolling for the device.
There is no word yet on when the HTC First will disappear from shelves nor has this plan of action been commented on by HTC, Facebook or AT&T.
It is unclear exactly when the First will be pulled from store shelves. AT&T’s $0.99 sale is obviously intended to move as much inventory as possible, and then the phone will be discontinued as soon as HTC’s in-store display contract expires. HTC has paid to reserve display space in AT&T’s retail stores for a certain period of time and the phone cannot be pulled until that contract has run its course.
Having loaded Facebook Home onto my Galaxy S3 I quickly uninstalled it after finding it far to intrusive. I not an Android fan but this was kinda over the top for me. I DO like the Chat Heads (which are in iOS now) but beyond that, Home is a great idea but in need of serious tweaking.
It will be interesting to see how Facebook answers this given the other challenges the social networking giant has faced recently. Clearly this is not a good sign for the company.
ABBYY Launches Illustrated Digital PhraseBooks
04 days ago
ABBYY, a leading provider of document recognition, data capture and linguistic technologies, today announced the availability of ABBYY PhraseBooks for iOS, an application that helps travelers communicate in 6 languages including English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. It also allows them to quickly learn most common phrases for various occasions and feel at home when abroad and offline.
PhraseBooks for iOS offers an up-to-date language content grouped by ABBYY’s lexicographers into 11 topics, most vital for traveling. Each has a special Useful Words subgroup containing most popular words and phrases on the subject. All
ABBYY PhraseBook Helps in Six Languages
phrases are voiced by native speakers and illustrated with descriptive, humorous visuals from the ABBYY designer team. Additionally, from within PhraseBooks users can send their own suggestions for ABBYY developers about new phrases or languages they find worthy of being included in the application.
“ABBYY PhraseBooks is there to help when you have to explain your needs or thoughts in a language you can’t speak freely”, explained Katya Solntseva, Director of Mobile Products Department at ABBYY. “Special exercises will also help you memorize useful everyday phrases while traveling or preparing for a trip abroad.”
To learn new words or collocations, a user adds them to the Learning list and runs the exercise they like the most. The Remember Translation exercise displays a learning card with an illustrated foreign phrase to be translated into user’s mother language, while in the “Remember audibly” exercise a phrase is voiced over. Statistical data, available in the end of each task, indicates one’s personal progress.
ABBYY PhraseBooks for iOS is $9.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide through the App Store in the Travel category. It is available under the localized titles, including ABBYY Frasari, ABBYY Sprachfuhrer and ABBYY Guides de conversation. Supported interface languages include English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian.
PhraseBooks – $9.99 – Download Now
Is The FaceBook Icon a Sign of iOS 7 Look & Feel?
3Last night as I sat on my chaise lounge, listening to music and doing everything possible to keep Lucky The Cat from crawling over me, I noticed an update was available for my iPad. I tapped on the App Store icon, moved over to Updates and saw that Facebook had released version 6.1.1 for iOS. The update, according to the description, provided me new photo viewer functions for improved sharing, improved photo editing and faster event loading on my iPhone. Being a diligent little geek I immediately downloaded the update and when I went back to my Home screen I saw the surprise.
A new Facebook icon! Woo-hoo!
It was that point I did something I hardly ever do – I took a screen capture of my iPad with the new icon. Why? Well, I
The Mysterious Facebook Icon
don’t really know. I was planning of course to write a post this morning about “Facebook updated their iOS app” but even for those, as regular readers know, I never post a screenshot of the icon.
Yet I did capture it and less than an hour later I got another update notification for Facebook v6.1.1 and… the icon reverted back to the one released earlier this year. Just like that, the new icon was gone.
But it got me to thinking… come along with me for a minute. I think what we saw was a glimpse of iOS 7.
The rumour mill is in overdrive at the minute with speculation, mock-ups and “unnamed sources” indicating this or that about iOS 7. Regular readers know that I don’t write on the rumours about iOS-whatever or iDevice rumours because once you are on that treadmill you can never get off. But that doesn’t mean I don’t read about them on other sites (impossible not to really) and one message that seems to be coming through clear is that in iOS 7 there will be a “flattening” of the look and feel of iOS.
Which is exactly what the mysterious Facebook icon was for it’s brief moment in the App Store sun.
If you look at the icon up close you will see it is very flat in design, very minimalist. Gone are the glossy shadings of the
The Mysterious Facebook Icon Up close
current icon (see the current icon as the featured image of this article in the upper-left corner). Gone are the three dimensional aspects of the icon for the most part as well. It’s nice and flat but still aesthetically pleasing in its own way. I kinda liked it.
My speculation that this was a glimpse at iOS 7 is further fuelled by the breakneck speed at which Facebook got Apple to approve and send out a new v6.1.1 update. Folks, developers spend weeks trying to get updates approved by Apple. Facebook got it done in what amounts to an hour?
Menlo Park (Facebook HQ): Uh, hi guys, we have a problem. We updated our app but we accidentally included the iOS 7 icon
Cupertino (Apple HQ): Uh, you did what? Seriously? WTF? How hard is it keep an icon under wraps?
Now, I have no idea if that conversation happened but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were the case.
I am however convinced that this was a genuine mistake by Facebook and by the Apple approvers that was quickly rectified because it is showing a little more of iOS 7 than Apple wanted or Facebook intended.
By-the-way, the new features in the update are pretty cool!
