Hasta La Gadget!

This week the folks at the United States Patent and Trademark Office have denied Apple’s first application for trademarking the term “iPad mini“. As it’s noted in the letter that was originally sent out back near the end of January, made public this week, the USPTO has re-stated that the “i” as well as the “Pad” bits of the application are fine, while the “mini” bit of the show needs to be a bit more descriptive. And the April Fools Jokes commence.

One of the more amazing takes on this situation comes from AppAdvice where they’ve falsified a couple of quotes from Apple, saying they’ll be moving forward with the name “iNewton” instead of iPad mini from this point forward. Sound like a reasonable action to you? This situation is odd for more than its subsequent jokes, mind you – while generally Apple has been granted trademarks such as these without fail here in the USA.

As noted by Patently Apple, the original submission of this patent application and the time between then and now, when the documents have been made public, is a real oddity. Also odd is the time between the denial, made on March 27th, and the time it was made public – several days later. That said, it’s certainly not the end of the iPad mini as we know it – Apple has the opportunity to re-submit its application to the USPTO without penalty.

Without a successful application by Apple to the USPTO, they’ll continue to only have a trademark on the name “iPad.” As the USPTO notes, the letter “i” before the name does successfully indicate that Apple is showing the device to work with the internet in their own unique way, much like the iPhone. Their current denial comes in the form of the “mini” which they say only says that the original iPad is being shown in a smaller size – effectively suggesting that Apple’s name isn’t something they can claim as their own naming convention.

No Joke: Apple must resubmit “iPad mini” trademark application is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Looking for a way to organize your massive collection of selfies pictures of you and your friends? Trying to break into the music scene with the voice of an angel, more specifically a tone-deaf, 3-pack-a-day angel? Just want to get a feel for the world without ever putting on pants? This week’s offering of iPad apps has you covered, whatever your dream may be. More »

With an iOS 6 jailbreak now out and about, developers are starting to think ahead to iOS 7. We’ve already heard from Evad3rs team member David Wang (a.k.a. Planetbeing) about the chances of jailbreaking iOS 7, and according to him, it’ll most likely be a slow battle to find the exploits in iOS 7. However, another well-known jailbreaker has stepped up and pointed out that he has a solution.

Joshua Hill (a.k.a. p0sixninja, who’s a member of the Greenpois0n dev team) took to Twitter and said that, from the looks it, “the next jailbreak might be created entirely by [him].” He followed up with that statement saying that “Evad3rs haven’t gone anywhere,” and he claims he “just discovered all the needed exploits…over the past few months.”

The latest version to be jailbroken is iOS 6.1.2, which means that iOS 6.1.3 still has to be exploited, as Apple as specifically called out the Evad3rs dev team and patched up the exploits needed to jailbreak. At that point, Wang says he doesn’t know if a jailbreak will be released for iOS 6.1.3, and iOS 7 may be just as hard to break into.

Of course, we’re not sure if Hill is simply pulling our leg or if he’s actually being quite serious, but considering that he’s a reputable dev team member, it’s very likely that he’s telling the truth. Either way, iOS 7 hasn’t even been announced yet, so it’s too early to tell exactly how easy or hard it will be to break into iOS 7.

iOS 7 jailbreak supposedly already in the works is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

There are hordes of gamers all around the world who enjoy a good MMO video game. Typically MMOs can only be played with gamers on the same platform. That means if you buy the game for your PC, you can only play against other PC gamers, while if you buy it for a console, you can only play against other console gamers.

There are some cross-platform MMO games when it comes to the mobile world to allow different devices to play the game together. A company called Game Insight has announced a new cross-platform MMO called Dragon Eternity. The game has come first to the iPad and is available for PC gamers using a web browser version of the game. That web browser version of the game is currently in open beta and has over million users globally.

The game developers promise to deliver an Android version of the game in the near future. The developers of the game promise unprecedented depth and a huge variety of content to form a deep MMO experience allowing players to choose sides in the game world. Players can play as Vaalor or Sadar factions and as one of three different character types.

The character types include Paladin, Berserk, and the Witcher. The game play has players completing quests and collecting various weapons and sets of armor. The goal is to eventually earn the trust of the Dragon that will follow the player and fight with them. The game also supports nine different harvesting and crafting professions and has an in-game auction system. Players can also take advantage of five different varieties of combat including head-to-head and player versus player combat styles. One of the interesting things about the game is that a player can start a new adventure on the iPad and then pick that adventure up from where they left off on a web browser.

[via Dragon Eternity]

Dragon Eternity cross-platform MMO hits the iPad is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

More than a few iOS-based Twitter users were happy to see Twitterrific 5 appear late last year with a fresh design, but were less than thrilled to go without the push notifications that many take for granted in other apps. Equality has come through Twitterrific 5.2 — for some, at least. The upgrade at last pops up interactions as they happen, with a symbol to indicate whether it’s a conversation, favorite or retweet. Push delivery isn’t guaranteed at this point, however. Iconfactory is currently rolling out the beta-level feature to users in batches of 1,000 to avoid oversaturating its servers; you may have to wait awhile. The impatient still get some upgrades to sate their appetite, though, including user banners on profiles, discussion sharing through email and Droplr content thumbnails. If you’re willing to pay $6 ($3 on sale) for more than what Twitter gives away for free, the new version may be a good excuse to try something new.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: iMore

Source: App Store, Twitterrific