Premium devices call for premium accessories but such accessories need not be complicated or sophisticated. Sometimes, even just two small blocks of wood can turn into a simple, completely functional, and exquisitely beautiful iPad stands. This is exactly the kind of product being promised in the COBURNS iPad stands that is now rocking on Kickstarter. […]
That old iPad 2 of yours too blurry for your precious eyes? That fantastically beautiful screen on the iPad 3 too heavy to lift for your puny muscles? Best Buy is willing to take those old tablets off your hands for at least 200 bucks. This Friday June 12th and Saturday June 13th, Best Buy is doing a trade-in event where it’ll give you a $200 gift card for your old iPads. You can get more than that too.
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Apple has now slashed the prices of iPad 2 and iPad 3 models that it is officially selling on its online refurbished store. Such units can only be purchased online and won’t be found at any Apple Retail Stores. Prices have been slashed only for Wi-Fi plus Cellular and Wi-Fi plus 3G variants of these iPads.
The 16GB iPad 2 WiFi plus 3G model retails for $529, on the online refurbished store it can be purchased for $349. That’s a 34% saving, which in dollar terms, makes $180. The same variant with 32GB internal storage can be purchased for $429 and the one with 64GB storage can be purchased for $529. A brand new 16GB iPad 3 wih WiFi plus cellular model has a retail price of $529, from the online store it is available for $409 only. The 32GB and 64GB ones can be purchased for $499 and $579 respectively. These discounted prices won’t be available for long, they only last till stocks clear out. These prices do make up for a good deal, and if you’re holding out for the next generation iPad but still need an Apple tablet in the interim, the refurbished models are an excellent choice.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple Patent Connects iPhone To Mac Automatically Through Proximity System, Federal Agents Are No Match For Apple iMessage Encryption, 
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Over at Epic Gamers there’s been an announcement by its founder that the studio formerly known as Impossible Studios will be closed from this point forward. This is the developer umbrella under which the Apple “game of choice” title “Infinity Blade” lived up until now, with the next title in this series “Infinity Blade: Dungeons” now stopped in development indefinitely. The future of the current duo of Infinity Blade games has not yet been commented on.
This announcement was made today that the project known as Impossible Studios has ultimately failed. This project was, for those of you that do not know, a collective of developers formerly known as Big Huge Games. This Big Huge Games has for the past year been working with Epic and here in early February, 2013, they’ve been effectively shuttered.
The developers working with what’s been over the past year “Impossible Studios” will be given 3 months of severance pay and a rather rare opportunity. This opportunity, according to Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney, will be “to form a new company with the Impossible Studios name and the awesome Impossibear logo.” While that’s not unique in this sort of situation, it’s certainly kind of Epic who otherwise stand the chance of being misunderstood as a bit evil corporation in this situation.
It’s also a bit unclear at the moment who will own the rights to Infinity Blade as it was a game being created by Big Huge Games before Epic took in the team to form Impossible Studios. Given the fact that this game was showcased by Apple with the introduction of the iPad 3 (aka The New iPad), there is a bit more at stake here than a simple game title. All that code is out there somewhere!
Infinity Blade’s future cut short: Epic drops Impossible Studios is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week we got the opportunity to speak with Jane from ONGUARD about the company’s new family of folding cases and covers for the iPad, iPhone, and Google Nexus 7. What you’re seeing here is a brand new line of cases and covers, the company bringing on a new generation of magnet-toting amalgamations of protection and display for your devices. What we’ve seen here is a unit for the iPhone 5 that’s a case and a stand in one, a similar solution for the iPad (3/4), and another for the Google Nexus 7 tablet that’s not just a stand, but a sleeve as well.
The iPhone 5 unit we’re seeing here is shown in leathery black with red stitching, working as two separate pieces, a case that can exist on its own, and the leathery bit that fits over it to create one single unit. The protection this unit offers is thick and robust, but the real gem is the stand – it’s magnetically held tight and down in your pocket when you don’t need it and folds up and out when you do. Real simple, really high quality – and it’ll hold your iPhone up in two different positions.
NOTE: None of the cases are called “origami” as such, but that’s certainly the easiest way to describe them to someone who has never seen them before.
Next is the iPad case and stand by the name of ONGUARD Shell. This unit fits around the sides and back of your iPad to offer some basic protection for everything but the display and, like the iPhone case, folds up in a triangular origami-like way to prop your iPad up with style. While we’ve seen similar solutions to this in the past, this is the only unit we’ve seen where the stand stays flat against the back when not in use.
Finally there’s a unique case/stand by the name of ONGUARD Sleeve for the ASUS Nexus 7 from Google. This unit (like the other solutions we’ve seen today) comes in a variety of colors, but here works on the understanding that the Nexus 7 is already thick enough as it is, keeping your protection limited to when you’re in transit with the machine rather than having it covered at all times. The case then folds up and acts as a stand, once again, when you’ve taken the device out for daily use. Well played!
We’ll be seeing more of ONGUARD in the near future – for now you’ll want to jump in on the rest of our CES 2013 action in our massive CES portal all week long for more hands-on action and up to the minute updates all week long!
ONGUARD iPad, iPhone 5, and Nexus 7 folding “origami” cases hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The artist responsible for some of the most iconic album covers in rock and roll history, the man known as Roger Dean, has taken part in the creation of a game by the name of Dragon’s Dream. This game takes some fabulous ethereal environmental elements from Dean’s artworks and creates a multi-level set of worlds for you, a tiny dragon, to fly around in. The game exists as a sort of classic-feeling side-scrolling flying adventure and has you seeking full-sized versions of the artworks at hand by beating each level with just a set of taps and holds.
This game works perfectly well on each of the different iDevice screen sizes – iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch alike. It takes a simple game mechanic – holding your finger down on your display to make the sprite flap his wings – and makes an above-and-beyond beautiful bit of brilliance to make it a must-own app for your high-definition devices. Everything from the game environments to the loading screen back out to the title logo has been designed by Dean.
For those of you unaware, Roger Dean is the man behind your favorite progressive rock album covers – Yes and Asia being some of the more famous. Having also created one of the most well-known logos for a video game in the history of the universe – Tetris – allows Dean the clout to create the game we’re seeing here, top to bottom.
“We have taken many elements from the Dragons Dream paintings; landscapes from Arches Morning, 1st April, Birdsong, Morning Dragon, Elbow Rock and Sea of Light all come together to create two new worlds, making this application an essential element of my artwork portfolio.” – Roger Dean
You’ll be able to pick this game up from the iTunes App Store starting on the 18th of November starting at £2.99. The release may be international by that time – for now we’re sure it’ll be out in the UK at least. Here’s crossing your fingers and toes!
Roger Dean’s Dragons Dream for iOS Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apple’s iPad saw its market share slip more than 15-percent in Q3 2012, according to new research, with Android tablets from Samsung and Amazon clawing away sales amid a growing market overall. While still dominating the tablet market overall, with a 50.4-percent share in Q3 so IDC reports, the iPad faced huge growth from Samsung in particular, which saw a year-on-year increase in market share of 325-percent.
According to the researchers, Samsung jumped from 6.5-percent market share in Q3 last year, to 18.4-percent in Q3 this year. It also saw a 115-percent increase from Q2 2012, and overall takes second place in IDC’s global leaderboard.
Amazon, too, took a bite out of Apple’s dominance, with the Kindle Fire HD line-up propelling it to third place and just under a tenth of the market. ASUS was helped to fourth place, Google’s Nexus 7 working its budget magic, while Lenovo snatched fifth place.
According to IDC’s number counters, it’s Samsung’s range of size options that helped it find so many buyers in 2012. “Samsung took advantage of an opportunity in the second quarter,” program manager Ryan Reith suggests. “The company offers a wide range of tablet offerings across multiple screen sizes and colors, and that clearly resonated with more buyers this quarter.”
The fact that the iPad mini extends the company’s tablet footprint into new screen sizes both works for and against Apple’s sales, IDC argues. The long-standing rumors of a smaller model may have dissuaded buyers of the existing, 9.7-inch version, it’s believed, though there’s the potential for a good quarter ahead now that the 7.9-incher is on sale.
However, pricing could still leave room for Android tablet OEMs to slip through. “[The] mini’s relatively high $329 starting price leaves plenty of room for Android vendors to build upon the success they achieved in the third quarter” research director Tom Mainelli highlights. Google in particular reacted aggressively to the iPad mini, ditching its 8GB Nexus 7 and replacing it with a 16GB $199 model.
iPad dominance slides as Samsung and Amazon tap tablet sales is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We’ve seen many drop tests conducted on phones and tablets before. They’re rather cringe-worthy but if you’re looking for a new tablet that can withstand an accidental drop or two, we guess those videos can come in handy. That being said, the folks at SquareTrade have come up with a drop test video in which three tablets were tested – the iPad mini, the Nexus 7 and the iPad 3. Now typically drop tests basically involve the tester using their hands to hold and drop the tablet, hardly scientific, right? Well SquareTrade has come up with a contraption in which all three tablets are dropped at the same time and at the same angle. Next up they dunked all three tablets in water and ultimately ruled that the iPad mini did the best. However in the drop test the Nexus 7 came away with less damage, something worth taking into consideration. In any case you can be the judge, just check it out in the video above.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Don’t buy an iPad 3 today unless you like the old 30-pin connector, Apple sold 3 million iPads in 3 days,
Path has pushed out a new version of its app, now catering for iPad and iPad mini users wanting to keep up with the movements and media from their friends and family. The new app, a free download, means iPad owners no longer have to use the double-size iPhone version when they’re on their tablets, with an all-new interface to suit portrait and landscape orientation on the Apple slates.
A new homescreen takes advantage of the larger real-estate on offer to include recent activity and the friends list, all on one page. That makes it easier to see friends’ activity with fewer taps, Path points out; the company also expects usage of its app to surge now that more people have native access to it.
Individual views of friends’ book moments now show comments and profile pics for each user, together with the description (and Path’s equivalent of read receipts) on the same page. Swiping left and right through the landscape view switches between days, showing all the check-ins that were made on a map.
The new iPad version follows updates to Path’s smartphone apps, as well as broadening of the service as a whole; earlier this year, the company added movie searches and “nudging” to its iPhone and Android software. Path for iPad will be landing in the App Store imminently, whereupon you’ll be able to find it here [iTunes link].
Path for iPad released is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
An early fourth-generation iPad benchmark was spotted on Geekbench today, and it scored a 1757, which more than doubles the score of the third-generation iPad, which checked in with a Geekbench score of 791. In fact, the fourth-generation iPad (which goes by iPad3,4) scored higher than the iPhone 5 on the Geekbench score we took. However, we have seen some Android phones and tablets flirt with this score before, like the Galaxy S3 and the Nexus 7 . (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Don’t buy an iPad 3 today unless you like the old 30-pin connector, Apple Event available on video,
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