Gamasutra – Press Releases – Professional Darts Championship – Now With Added Multiplayer Options

[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]

Professional Darts Championship, the no.1 darts app on theiTunes store now comes with added multiplayer options following thelatest update to the game.

The latest 1.1 update features Bluetooth head-to-headfunctionality for local match-ups and now has an Invite a Friendoption within Game Center. Appshen’s developers have alsoworked on some minor bug fixes and made improvements to thegame’s engine which ensures smoother gameplay.

Appshen have 50 promo codes for the latest update which areavailable to websites and publications for review and competitionpurposes. if you would like to secure one of these promo codes thenplease reply to this email with your requested number of codes.

Appshen’s Professional Darts Championship is the top-rateddarts game on the iTunes App Store with an impressive review ratingof 4.5 out of 5 from hundreds of reviews. The game is one of thefew darts apps to feature Apple’s Game Center technology,allowing players to go head-to-head with fellow players around theworld. The game is available for the iPhone and iPad from theiTunes store.

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New Aluminum iPhone Case Built in the U.S.

Orange County-based company Rokform is one of many that build accessories for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, yet the company stands out from the bunch, since as they state, their standard of building all products in the United States has set a new standard for quality in a market saturated by imports.

“Our approach to manufacturing and design is unique to the industry. through this start-to-finish, hands-on method we can ensure the best performance for our customers in every Rokform product,” said Jeff Whitten, vice president of Rokform, in a press release.

Whitten said functionality is their “top priority,” and noted all development is done on their own turf and with domestic companies they’ve partnered up with.

The company just released its latest product, the Rokbed Fuzion iPhone 4/4S case. the case is built from aircraft-grade aluminum for toughness, and injection molded polycarbonate to help it snap on and off the phone.

The space-age-looking case goes along with designs common for the company—often smooth metallic frames with a robotic touch.

The Rokbed Fuzion weighs less than an ounce, has six-sided protection to guard against drops, and has 11 different color options.

To prove the durability of the case, the company hosted a contest on Facebook for ideas to test different drops, which it then featured in a video. These included dropping it on a tile floor, having it fall from a pocket on the street, and running it over with a truck. They then pick it up and show the back and front—with no noticeable damage.

The case sells for $79, and can be found at rokform.com.

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Technology News: Reviews: Filterstorm for iPhone: Phenomenal Editing Power, Itty Bitty Working Space

Filterstorm, an app from Tai Shimizu, is available for US$3.99 at the App Store.

Using Filterstorm for iPhone made me wonder what life would have been like if I’d chosen the iPad edition of the app instead.

Filterstorm is obviously powerful, it’s much more versatile than the generic set of filters you see in a lot of other iPhone photo retouching apps, and near as I can tell, it delivers each and every feature it flaunts in its App Store description.

And it’s not as though a phone is in all cases an unsuitable device for retouching photos. give me a set of prefab filters and some color-adjustment sliders and I’m happy tweak whatever random shots I took with my iPhone, perhaps creating something pleasant to look at in the process.

But when a photo app’s abilities reach a certain level, its features start to feel cramped when confined to a three-and-a-half-inch screen. And that’s the main impression I got from the iPhone version of Filterstorm.

Filterstorm is a photo retouching app that isn’t quite as feature-rich as something like Photoshop or GIMP. But it certainly has more tricks up its sleeve than any other iPhone photo app I’ve ever used.

Import a photo from your Camera Roll, or paste in something you copied from the Web, and you’re ready to go. Let’s peruse your options.

  • Canvas: For Filterstorm, this goes way beyond cropping, borders and flip/rotate. you can also scale an image, scale it to fit, and straighten the shot to put the horizon, for example, on a truly level line.
  • Filters: This control panel isn’t just a bunch of dumb names for prefab treatment routines. here you can do hue/saturation adjustments, sharpening, white balance, tone mapping, noise reduction, a red-eye brush and brightness/contrast, among other things. you can even adjust curves and levels if you have the urge.
  • Layers: This is where Filterstorm takes its job a step further. Creating levels and masks is a part of image retouching that most iPhone photo apps don’t touch. But Filterstorm’s got it.
  • Automation: And if you really do want to automate your work and apply a prefab set of adjustments to a whole series of images, you can whip up a custom automation and let the app do the legwork itself.

Perhaps Filterstorm has arrived at the absolute edge of small-screen photo retouching. It can do things you don’t often see in iPhone photo apps — masking, level mapping, automations, etc. But the work can become incredibly tedious, not through any direct fault of the app, but because of the fact that you’re trying to do detailed photo editing work on an object roughly the size of a Kit-Kat bar.

If you’re used to doing this stuff with a nice big (or even an 11-inch) screen, with a mouse or touchpad controlling a sharp little cursor, and with at least a gigabyte or two of memory at your back, Filterstorm on iPhone might just drive you to tear your hair out. The app itself isn’t frustrating; it’s the relatively small touchscreen and minimal memory (compared to a full-size computer) that the user is dealing with.

Brushing in mask mode with a finger means you have to cover up the spot where you’re delicately trying to cut a very fine line, so you can’t really see exactly where the cursor is. To get it just right you’ll need to zoom in, and do remember to change modes before trying to move the image over, lest you’ll mistakenly brush a part of the image you didn’t mean to. Make a mistake and you can use an eraser, but not a familiar Command-Z. And the path the brush takes will be a jerky one — apparently iPhone 4’s brain isn’t quite sharp enough to process quick finger motions when this sort of graphical work is being done.

An app this complex requires at least some help documentation. Filterstorm’s help menus are accessed through the icon of a circled “i.” Touch “about Filterstorm,” then go to “Tutorials.”

Here you’ll find light explanations of some of the app’s more advanced features — cloning, curves, layers, etc. Topics like levels, hue/saturation and tone mapping aren’t addressed. Perhaps their effects are so plainly evident on the photo you’re manipulating that they don’t need explanation?

The help menu is actually a link to a website where the content is kept. I suppose this allows the developers to keep it more up to date without having to push an endless series of updates out through the App Store. however, I can see a user wanting to dig into this app, say, after a long vacation while sitting on a plane. Without Web access, that person would be cut off from any how-to information.

The site also includes a few embedded video demos, though none seemed to play properly on my iPhone. some had links directly to where they’re hosted by Vimeo, and those worked.

The demo videos that I could see certainly make using the app look easy, though they do move very fast with minimal exposition. If you’re very familiar with concepts like layers, masking and curves, you might be able to keep up and figure out exactly how they work on this app, perhaps after a couple of viewings. If not, don’t expect Filterstorm to provide an introductory class.

Filterstorm won’t short-change you. The features it says it has are the features you’ll get, and even if you never get into the app’s more advanced abilities, you’ll still have a very capable retouch app on your iPhone.

But if you do plan on using Filterstorm for everything it has, make sure you have a lot of patience for doing painstaking work on a small screen.

Samsung Galaxy Note to Hit AT&T Stores Beginning Febuary 19

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Samsung is aiming to achieve something where Dell failed through its 5 inch tablet-smartphone hybrid in the Galaxy Note. The Android device will be offered by AT&T beginning February 19.

The Samsung Galaxy Note will hit AT&T shelves starting the 19th of February for $300 with a contract of two years. Those who want to secure their own piece of the device and have the chance to choose between the Ceramic White and Carbon Blue version may preorder starting February 5 and expect deliveries by February 17.

The Samsung Galaxy Note was introduced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show. The Android running tablet-smartphone features a high definition Super AMOLED display that is 5.3 inches in size. It also has a stylus referred to as the S pen for emailing and writing and contains almost all and even more features expected from both a tablet and a smartphone.

Its S Memo application which complements the S Pen lets a user take pictures, type texts, write notes, draw, and do voice recording as well as perform any other type of user-created content. All these information can be combined in one application and changed into a memo for sharing.

The Samsung Galaxy Note measures 83.95 mm x 146.85 mm x 9.65 mm. It is slightly thicker compared to the density of the iPhone 4 which is 9.3 mm. The operating system of the Galaxy Note is Android’s Gingerbread version. It has a 1.4GHz two-core processor, 16GB internal memory and HSPA, LTE and WiFi capabilities.

It also has an S-Planner that is great for scheduling. its 8 MP camera consists of features like white balancing, blink detection, GPS tagging, video calls and front-facing camera. Furthermore, it has enterprise-friendly features such as Microsoft Exchange Active Sync, WebEx conferencing of Cisco Systems and VPN solution.

Samsung officials announced that the device has a 2500 mAH battery that has been tested to have a 3G talk time of about 13 hours of 3G, video playback of 8 hours and 25 minutes and web browsing of 3 hours and 35 minutes.

Aside from the device, AT&T will also be selling some of its accessories such as a desktop dock, a system for spare battery charging, different colors of its flip cover case and an S pen holder kit.

How to Choose a Mobile Carrier for Your Small Business

Although you may have only a handful of major wireless providers to choose from, each offers an array of plans, services, devices, and pricing. Voice, messaging, and data aren’t the only options now that you have mobile Internet for laptops, tablets, and even mobile Wi-Fi hotspots.

This guide steps through the important features and hidden fees to watch for when you’re selecting a mobile provider. If you’re in the market for a carrier to keep your staff connected and productive, read on. If you’re looking for a handset and service plan for yourself alone, start with PCWorld’s consumer cell phone buying guide.

Assess your Needs

First, evaluate the kinds of services your organization must have. for instance, traveling salespeople might need mobile phones, but can the office-bound do without? If those staffers use only basic talk or texting, then feature phones (or “dumb” phones) should do the job. If they need email, Web access, and apps, however, go with a smartphone. Note that even though you can get a free smartphone when signing a contract, that arrangement usually requires committing to a data plan of $30 or more per line.

As for choosing a voice-minutes package, most providers offer free calls on nights and weekends. therefore, start with a daily workday estimate of the minutes and multiply that by 21 for the month. Does your staff require text or multimedia messaging? Estimate how many messages per day and per month each person will use. From there, pick one of the bundles that cover a set amount of messages, or select an unlimited option.

What about a data plan for checking email, using GPS navigation, browsing the Web, or accessing Internet applications for work? most providers–including the big four, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon–offer a data calculator to estimate usage. keep in mind that your employees will typically have “free” data usage within the office if you provide Wi-Fi and their phones are connected. but don’t bank on using just Wi-Fi, since most providers require that $30-or-higher monthly data plan per line for you to get the special pricing on smartphones regardless.

How many of your employees travel often enough to need an Internet connection on their laptops, netbooks, or tablets? If one staffer has a mobile phone with a data plan, could that person use the phone’s Internet connection via tethering instead of purchasing exclusive access for his or her other mobile devices? or, if multiple employees typically travel together, could you provide Internet to all through a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot?

If the mobile carrier also provides Internet and phone service for the office, it’s worthwhile to get quotes for a package that bundles wired and wireless service.

Consider Regional Carriers

No doubt you’ve heard of the major mobile providers, but regional carriers might also serve your area. most of these companies don’t limit coverage to your region alone, but allow free roaming throughout most of the United States via agreements with larger networks. most lack international roaming, however.

Check the coverage areas of popular regional carriers Cricket Wireless, MetroPCS, and U.S. Cellular for starters. in addition, think about prepaid smartphone options: They can save you a bundle, especially if your employees don’t need a handset for the long term.

Examine Contracts and Fees

As you likely know from dealing with your personal mobile service, providers are eager to bulk up their contracts and fees. They draw you in with discounts on hardware, and then keep you by requiring contracts–typically for two years, for each line of service.

If your business already has mobile service, confirm whether the provider’s contracts hold you back from switching carriers. Breaking such contracts means paying an early-termination fee–usually $150 to $350 per line, prorated based on the time remaining. still, parting ways is smart if you can save even more money in the long term by changing providers. If only a few individuals have mobile service at your company, sites such as CellSwapper put people who want to trade providers in touch.

Remember, however, that some providers, such as AT&T, won’t prorate the final month’s service charges. in that case, wait until near the end of the monthly billing period to cut the service.

Most mobile carriers require an activation fee, typically $35 per line. Additionally, each could charge 15 percent or more of the monthly service amount to cover taxes, government fees, and the carrier’s own administrative fees. You’re also subject to overage charges if employees exceed the plan’s minutes, messages limit, or data cap. That’s why you should check with providers on what limitations or monitoring features they have, and whether such offerings are for a free or premium service.

Scrutinize Coverage and Roaming

Signing contracts might be your only option, so make sure the carrier’s coverage is adequate. Discuss with employees which carrier seems to work the best at your business locations, in the region, and from their home offices. you can also try a crowdsourced map such as Open Signal Maps or RootMetrics, where users report and track the strength of their signals. If you don’t receive good cell coverage inside your workplace buildings, determine whether the carrier you’re interested in offers coverage extenders.

Don’t forget to check the coverage maps for locations where employees might travel. no carrier provides 100 percent coverage everywhere, and in some places you might get coverage only by using another carrier’s network. that arrangement is fine on occasion, since most carriers provide free roaming. keep in mind, though, that most limit your roaming usage, so you need to be careful if you think an employee might be in roaming locations a significant amount of time.

For details about each major provider, see the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon coverage maps on the carriers’ respective websites. Be sure to look at the separate voice and data coverage. And if you’re expecting to use the data plan often, check for 4G coverage for higher speeds.

If your employees travel outside the United States, check international coverage and roaming charges for calls, messaging, and data, from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. most of the major providers support international use, but smaller or regional carriers usually don’t. If someone on your staff plans on using their mobile device internationally, consider adding an international package to that person’s account only for the time they’re gone, averting per-use charges.

Select a Phone

Most carriers support all the major phones and mobile OSs, including iOS for the iPhone, as well as RIM BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Phone 7 models. One major exception is that T-Mobile doesn’t officially carry iPhones; only unlocked iOS devices will work on its network.

Most mobile carriers offer free handsets, but typically require two-year contracts along with them. If employees really need only basic voice service, stick with basic or classic phones. you can get older smartphones for free (mostly Android-based devices and some BlackBerry ones), but usually only by purchasing a data plan of $30 or more a month per line. iPhones are not deeply discounted, as they run from $100 to $400, but refurbished ones cost less.

To help with your research, PCWorld regularly reviews the top smartphones and tablets. And in our extensive annual PCWorld Reliabiilty and Service survey, thousands of readers describe their favorite reliable smartphones and tablets, based on personal experience.

Compare Voice Plans

You’ll find that most carriers offer separate individual and group plans for consumers and businesses. With a group plan, multiple lines share a pool of minutes; typically this arrangement costs less than buying individual plans. the prices and features for consumer and business-group plans are generally the same. Consumer plans, however, typically limit you to adding up to five lines, and some providers don’t offer unlimited usage for business lines.

Mobile plans, pricing, and features change too often for me to list details, but you should look for special savings in the fine print when comparing carriers. here are several examples.

  • For select plans, AT&T offers the free Rollover Minutes feature, which saves unused minutes at the end of each month for use in future months if you exceed your anytime minutes.
  • Sprint’s any Mobile, Anytime free feature on select plans lets you call any mobile phone within the United States at no charge.
  • AT&T’s A-List and Verizon’s Friends and Family free features on select plans allow you to specify, for each line, up to ten numbers that a user can call at no charge.
  • T-Mobile offers Wi-Fi Calling for Business, which can help reduce the amount of minutes you need and dramatically lower international roaming for users connected to a local Wi-Fi hotspot or network.

When comparing voice plans, keep your eye out for additional phone services, such as call transferring, line hunt, conferencing, group voicemail, and toll-free number support. If you think push-to-talk will be useful, make sure the carrier supports it.

Review Email and Collaboration Services

Most phones include a free email client that you can set up for basic access to email. even classic “dumb” phones typically include this feature; however, they often require a data plan (or per-usage charges) or an email service add-on to your voice plan.

Smartphones also provide calendar and contact syncing support for consumer and corporate email users. If your organization doesn’t have an email server, such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server or Microsoft Exchange, some carriers provide BlackBerry Internet Service accounts for BlackBerry devices, or Microsoft Direct Push for Windows mobile devices.

Look at Extra Devices and Services

In addition to classic phones and smartphones, consider wireless Internet connectivity for your laptops, netbooks, tablets, and other Internet devices. You’ll find many methods to get these devices connected as well.

If you have a data plan on your phone, you could tether its access to a computer via USB cable or any other device via Wi-Fi. Note, however, that most carriers charge a monthly tethering fee on top of the data-plan fee, unless you have an unlocked or rooted device (which likely makes the tethering against the carrier’s policies).

Some newer laptops and netbooks now have 3G or 4G connectivity already integrated, just as devices have included Wi-Fi support for many years. for those computers without built-in connectivity, carriers offer PC Cards for laptops and USB adapters for netbooks and desktops.

If multiple employees tend to travel together, consider mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, which most carriers offer. Such devices basically act as a miniature Wi-Fi router that picks up the Internet from the 3G or 4G signal. most carriers supply devices that can provide Wi-Fi connectivity for up to five Wi-Fi computers or devices at a time.

How to tether your iPhone

When Apple unveils the iPad 3 next month, it will (probably) offer two options for connectivity: one model that is Wi-Fi-only, and another that utilizes 3G/4G data networks. But if you already own an iPhone with an expensive monthly data plan, it isn’t going to be in your best interest to buy data for a second mobile device.

That’s where tethering comes in. it lets you share your iPhone’s data plan with one or more other devices, including desktop PCs, laptops, gaming consoles, and, yes, an iPad. Most wireless carriers have done away with unlimited data plans, so you probably won’t be able to go crazy with it. But, as most of us have home DSL or cable internet service anyway, tethering should suffice for most people.

There are several approaches to tethering; we’ll cover all of your options here.

Authorized (paid) tethering

This is the only way that your carrier wants you to know about. they want you to buy a separate tethering plan. Most customers blindly accept this (they’re so accustomed to paying for plans that they don’t even question it), but there’s one big problem here: you’re essentially paying twice for the same data.

Sprint — who still offers unlimited data — could argue that there is a practical reason to charge for tethering (it keeps users from going overboard with unlimited data), but AT&T and Verizon have no such excuse. If you have a capped plan, what difference does it make how you’re using that data? It’s a scheme to make more money, and nothing more.

If you aren’t interested in jailbreaking — or if you like to play by the rules — then this is the route you’ll want to go with. If you login to your wireless account, all wireless carriers will give you the option of adding a tethering plan.

AT&T requires you to sign up for its biggest data plan, which includes “free” tethering. for $50 per month, it gives you 5GB of total iPhone data, which you are free to tether (or not) as you wish.

On Verizon, you’ll need to sign up for a $20/month hotspot plan. it gives you 2GB per month of tethering data. Unlike AT&T’s method, Verizon’s hotspot data is separate from your iPhone’s data plan.

Sprint requires a $30/month hotspot plan, which allows for 5GB of tethering data. the non-tethering data that you use on Sprint is still unlimited.

Once signed up for a tethering plan, you’ll still need to access tethering on your handset. to do this, open the Settings app, and navigate to General>Network>Personal Hotspot. after you turn it on for the first time, it will have a new entry near the top of your Settings menu.

Though Wi-Fi hotspot is the most common method, you can also tether your iPhone’s data via Bluetooth or USB. Bluetooth will give you the best battery life, but isn’t quite as fast as Wi-Fi. USB tethering should give you the best speeds, but you can only use it with a PC (obviously you can’t USB tether to an iPad) and you have to always have a cable. Wi-Fi may give you the best balance.

Once you activate tethering and choose the connection method, simply look for the network on the other device. iPads will easily connect to a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi-tethered iPhone.

Unathorized (free) tethering

For those who don’t mind bending (unfair) rules, the jailbreak community has you covered. after a one-time fee for a quality tethering app, you’ll be able to use your standard data plan any way you please — including tethering without additional fees.

The first step is to jailbreak your iPhone. We’re at a point in time when every iPhone can be jailbroken, so follow the instructions in the corresponding tutorial below:

How to jailbreak the iPhone 4S

How to jailbreak older iPhones on iOS 5.0.1

After jailbreaking, you’ll want to find a tethering app in Cydia. you can refer to our in-depth look below:

The best iPhone tethering apps (and one to avoid)

If you choose TetherMe, then the method of activating a hotspot is identical to the above instructions for authorized tethering. If you choose PdaNet, then you’ll simply open the PdaNet app, make sure “hide tethering” is checked, and activate it. You’re free to use MyWi, which is a phenomenal app, but I don’t recommend it due to its lack of hiding tethering from carriers.

It’s worth noting that there’s nothing illegal about unauthorized tethering, it just isn’t approved by your carrier. it violates your terms of service, but the worst that could happen would probably be their forcing you to sign up for a tethering plan. If you stick with TetherMe or PdaNet, you’ll probably be in the clear, but nothing can 100% guarantee that.

Expo Notes: The highlights of the Macworld iWorld Expo – Mac – Macworld UK

Crestron offers home and business automation

Most folks exploring the show floor at Macworld | iWorld are probably far more likely to drop $10 on an iPhone case than nearly $2000 on a home (or business) automation setup. But those with more discretionary income to spend may well be interested in the technology shown off this week by Crestron.

When we met with Crestron on the show floor, company representatives explained that they saw their business strategy as in line with Apple’s: like the Cupertino juggernaut, Crestron makes both the hardware and the software. The hardware connects to the electronics in your home: In addition to control processors, the company sells replacement light switches, thermostats, and other gizmos. Those devices all integrate with Crestron’s iOS apps, which, in turn, allow you to dim the lights, adjust the temperature, and control pretty much anything in your home that uses electricity.

Crestron representatives told me that some customers have even used their technology to automate the feeding of their fish. and depending on how nuanced you get with your setup, you can use Crestron’s iOS apps to, say, dim the lights and close your electric blinds when you tap to start a movie, and to bring the lights back up a bit if you tap Pause.

Because of the fairly steep prices involved in getting started, it’s not surprising that Crestron sees more traction with the enterprise market. Company representatives told me that corporate clients appreciate the ease with which they can automate video conferencing and presentation setups in conference rooms. even better, a company’s IT team can remotely monitor usage; if someone leaves the lights on in a conference room after a meeting’s long over, you can remotely turn off the lights to save a few bucks on electricity. not a bad idea, of course, if you’ve dropped several thousand dollars on your automation system in the first place.

Anthro’s cabinet charges 40 iPads, might be overkill for your home

You probably don’t have 40 iPads laying around your house. But if you have a business or school that does, this cart from Anthro might be for you. The Anthro Charging Cart & Cabinet for Tablets is a storage cabinet on wheels that can store and recharge up to 40 iPads or Android tablets.

This charging cart, on display at Macworld | iWorld in San Francisco has two compartments: one in the front for storing and charging the tablets, and one in the back for cable management and power outlets.

Although Anthro promotes the cabinet as one for storing iPads—this is Macworld, after all—the Anthro booth representative tells me that Android tablets will work just fine with it as well, since it just uses the standard power cables that come with your tablet. This particular cabinet costs $1499, but Anthro has other tablet/phone cabinets as well: it sells a cabinet that holds 20 tablets, along with ones that hold 20 or 40 phones.

Although these cabinets would be overkill for use in your home, it’s easy to see where they might prove to be useful in businesses or schools. Anthro says its storage cabinets and carts are geared toward use in education, health care, and retail. Check out Anthro’s site to learn more.

iSupport debuts three iPhone mounts for shooting steady video

The 8 megapixel camera in the iPhone 4S may shoot 1080p HD video, but that quality won’t matter if you can’t keep a steady hand. At Macworld | iWorld 2012, iSupport debuted three iPhone mounts for video enthusiasts who want to make sure they capture stable, high-quality footage.

The basic $49 iSupport is a lightweight mount made of ABS polymer. it features an iPhone holder that comes in two sizes. choose the smaller one for a naked iPhone or the larger one if you use an iPhone case (even if it’s big like the OtterBox). a rubber hood surrounds the iPhone’s camera, cutting out lens glare. you can also thread any 37mm lens—the standard camcorder lens size—onto the mount. there is a handle on each side, making it easy to grip the iPhone while shooting.

I got to play with the iSupport and liked the way it felt while shooting video. The accessory is light, but sturdy, and feels good in your hands. The handles on the iSupport made it easier to pan across a scene, and I preferred it to the OWLE Bubo, a heavier, metal alternative.

For more advanced shooters, the $79 iSupport Pro offers a few more features. The accessory’s clamshell iPhone holder protect the phone and adds a bit more centered weight for steadier shots.

iSupport’s $189 Cine Bundle takes things to another (perhaps excessive) level. The Cine Bundle is made of aircraft grade aluminum, according to the company. there are three tripod mounts on the bottom and two mounts on the top for attaching an assortment of accessories, like strobe lights or mics. you still get the rubber hood, but the handles are larger and more comfortable to grip. if you want to turn your iPhone into a studio-level device in one package, this is it. Lenses, tripods, and other accessories are not included with any of the mounts.

See the iSupport mounts at Booth no. 958 at this week’s Macworld | iWorld show in San Francisco’s Moscone West exhibit hall

Avatron’s Air Dictate app may not be dead forever

Although Avatron isn’t unveiling anything brand new at this year’s Macworld | iWorld event, the company did tell me about some news regarding its Air Dictate app.

Air Dictate is Avatron’s Vocal-esque iOS app that lets you use the transcription technology on your iPhone 4S in tandem with your Mac. you run a helper app on your Mac, launch the Air Dictate app, and start talking.

Or rather, you did. Apple recently pulled Air Dictate from the App Store, because Air Dictate used a non-standard interface to trigger the transcription technology on the iPhone 4S. normally, you’d tap the microphone key on the virtual keyboard; Air Dictate instead sported an interface all its own for the microphone. When the app first was pulled from the App Store, Avatron announced that it would no longer offer the app; it had no plans to retool things to get Apple approval.

At Macworld | iWorld, however, Avatron representatives told me that they’ve had a change of heart after a cooling off period. while the company was quick to say that it wasn’t prepared to make any promises, representatives did say that if they can figure out a way to make a cool interface without violating Apple policies, they will work to get a new version of the app back in the App Store.

Avatron was also showing off its Print Sharing, Air Sharing, and Air display apps. Air Sharing will soon sport a new PDF reader with much-improved PDF reading support, and Air display will soon be available for Android devices. an Avatron representative suggested that when early Kindle fire owners tire of those devices and upgrade to an iPad instead, perhaps they might use Air display for Android to turn their Fires into external monitors for their Macs.

Star Walk, Solar Walk to track rocket launch in future update

The next time SpaceX launches one of its rockets into space, you should be able to track its flight via a pair of popular star-gazing apps from Vito Technology.

Vito Technology makes the Star Walk and Solar Walk iOS apps. The former lets users locate and identify objects in the night sky, while the latter provides a 3D model of the solar system. (Star Walk comes in an iPhone version as well as the iPad-optimized offering; Solar Walk is a single app that runs on both devices.)

In addition to showing you stars and planets in the night sky, the Star Walk and Solar Walk apps also feature satellite trajectories and tracking. to that end, the company told me this week at Macworld | iWorld that a forthcoming update will add the ability to track the next SpaceX rocket launch from either of its star-gazing apps. SpaceX, the informal name for Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, is a private company founded by former PayPal cou-founder Elon Musk that’s pursuing commercial space exploration and transport.

Adding the SpaceX rocket tracking capability is consistent with Vito’s ongoing efforts to routinely add new features to its iOS apps. But it also appears to be part of the developer’s goal of adding to the educational aspects of its apps. Vito Technology is using this week’s Macworld | iWorld event to highlight the educational aspects of its apps—a timely push given last week’s Apple press event focusing on the use of the iPad in education.

Expect more on that front from Vito in the near future. The company has been working with the European Space Agency to expand the already impressive amount of content in Star Walk and Solar Walk, and Vito representatives told me this week that those efforts should pay dividends in future versions of the apps.

Vito has also been busy improving its Geo Walk visual encyclopedia. recent updates have made subtle though significant enhancements to the app’s distinctive interface, and the recent 2.4 update added content from publisher Dorling Kindersley that’s available through in-app purchase.

Video Camera shooting, editing and sharing app debuts

If you ever dreamed of creating quick movies with your iPhone or iPod touch, but didn’t know how to get started, or felt intimidated by the process, i4software has a suggestion: its new Video Camera app.

Video Camera, which debuted Thursday at Macworld | iWorld, aims to simplify the process of shooting, editing, and sharing video by combining all processes into one unified application. Video Camera lets you shoot your video, edit it, and upload it to various social media outlets.

But that’s not all. Video Camera’s built-in networking capabilities let groups of people share the video recording experience together in one place in real time, and soon, even from far-flung locations in real time.

“I always enjoyed making movies, but while shooting was quick, editing became time consuming,” said software architect Michael Zaletel, i4software’s CEO, and Video Camera’s creator. “The concept of combining acquisition and editing is revolutionary.”

It’s also easy, and powerful. Just load the app onto your device, and after launching it, shoot some clips—you can shoot with both the front and rear cameras of recent iPhones, but the app also worked on my 3GS model. When you have the footage you want, you can turn your attention to editing without leaving the app. The app’s live, non-linear editing lets you add, rearrange, trim, and delete clips. as you choose and trim the clips for your video, the app creates a timeline where you can refine, reorder, and add transitions to your creation.

“This is meant to be a seamless process, unchanged from the paradigm of shooting clips,” Zalatel said. “It’s just more creative. You’re playing with the clips and trimming them, and it’s all there without having to jump from one environment to another.”

Video Camera, which works with the iPhone 4 and 4S, fourth generation iPod touch, and iPad 2, lets you shoot HD video in 1080p, 720p, and standard definition. Triple tapping the app’s touch screen controls offers more experienced users the ability to control exposure, focus, and white balance, in addition to the app’s full zoom control.

The app has a rich slate of shooting and editing options to choose from: Auto-record; snapping photos while recording; date and time stamps; the ability to move, duplicate, or delete clips; and using the device’s location services to specify location to the credits.

It also includes some convenient amenities such as intros, background music, and transition choices. that built-in selection is basic, however, you can choose a background soundtrack from any music you own or purchase from the iTunes store. to give your movies a professional touch, you can add customizable titles and rolling credits.

With Video Camera, you aren’t confined to shooting video with your phone. Pairing a range of cameras using the iPad Camera Connection kit, you can shoot footage with the GoPro Hero, Panasonic GH1 or GH2, Canon PowerShot S100, 60D, and more, or edit movies that you already have in your camera roll from any source.

When you’re done with you video—and still within Video Camera—you can upload it to Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo, in two resolutions. and, of course, you can share it the old-fashioned way—via email.

While it can take only 10 minutes for a rank beginner to create a cute little movie, Video Camera’s Remote Camera feature builds on the concept of movie-making as a social experience. Employing i4software’s patented remote camera technology, groups of up to eight shooters can simultaneously record an event from different angles and combine the scenes together on one device to create multi-dimensional views of an event.

The group chooses who will be the Stage—the phone that collects all the videos from the rest of the Players. each player retains the video they shot, but the Stage gets all the footage from everyone and can, from there, create a movie from the combined shoot.

While the Stage/Player function requires all participants to be on the same Wi-Fi network, new server-based functionality will soon allow the same simultaneous shooting and sharing regardless of location. The concept of group shooting stays the same, but the mechanism for sharing the experience in real time extends beyond a single wireless network to encompass wireless and 3G networks linked via a secure server. This new function will be introduced in an update to the program in March, Zaletel says.

Video Camera is available now on the iTunes Store for an introductory price of $8.

Gather online financial statements with FileThis Fetch

The paperless office seems like a goal that you always strive for, but you never really accomplish. At Macworld | iWorld, FileThis introduced what it hopes will make the paperless office more of a reality. FileThis Fetch is a new online service that helps gather and organize your financial statements.

For $2 a month, Fetch will get the statements from the institutions you’ve entered into your account. The institution must be part of the Fetch network, and the company says that about 50 institutions are supported, including major banks such as Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Chase; credit card companies such as American Express and Discover; service providers such as Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast; and other institutions such as Aetna, PG&E, Allstate, and Geico. and more companies are being added.

Fetch uses a Web-based interface, so you can access your Fetch account from any Internet connection. But you probably won’t visit the Fetch site very often; once you configure your account with your institutions, Fetch acts in the background, automatically. Fetch will send you an email when statements are available.

At the product’s launch, you can configure Fetch to save statements to an Evernote account, or in a specified folder on your Mac. if you decide to do the latter, you have to use a Fetch application that you download to your Mac to configure your account, instead of the Web interface. a FileThis representative said that the company is working on support for Dropbox and Google Documents.

When using Fetch with Evernote, new Evernote Notebooks are created for each institution, and your statements are filed in that notebook. if you save statements on your Mac, then Fetch creates folders for each institution and saves the statements in the appropriate folder.

You can’t pay your bills through Fetch; it’s only a service to retrieve and help organize your statements. Sure, it’s a simple task to go and get your statements manually, but if you’re gathering documents from multiple institutions, a service like Fetch can help save a lot of time and effort, for a small price.

FileThis Fetch is being shown in the OS X Zone (booth 228) at this week’s Macworld | iWorld show in San Francisco’s Moscone West exhibit hall.

Smile introduces PDFpen for iPad

Mac and iOS developer Smile Software got a jump on Macworld | iWorld by releasing PDFpen for iPad, which, when paired with PDFpen for Mac, creates what the company is billing as “the first complete solution for full-featured PDF editing on iPad and Mac.”

The iOS version of PDFpen lets you manage and edit PDF documents on your iPad, including adding and editing text, adding and resizing images, and filling in forms. you can also add comments, annotations, shapes, and freehand marks, and you can even include standard proofreading symbols from the PDFpen’s extensive library. The app lets you import images from the iPad’s Photos library, and you can save frequently used images—such as your signature—for easy access. a thumbnail-view sidebar gives you an overview of a document’s contents, and you can duplicate documents, combine documents, and delete pages from documents.

The company also announced that both PDFpen for iPad and the latest versions of PDFpen and PDFpenPro for Mac can store documents in iCloud, letting you easily access and edit your PDF documents from multiple devices. The iPad version can also open files from and save files to Dropbox, Google Docs, and Evernote; you can also transfer files to and from your iPad via iTunes, FTP, WebDAV, and iDisk.

PDFpen for iPad requires iOS 5 and is currently available from the App Store for an introductory price of $10. The latest updates to PDFpen and PDFpenPro for Mac, version 5.7 for both, are free. However, if you purchased either Mac app directly from Smile, you’ll need to purchase the $1 PDFpen Cloud Access app for iCloud syncing. (The latest Mac App Store versions of PDFpen and PDFpenPro include the Cloud Access component.) New purchases of PDFpen for Mac are $60; PDFpenPro is $100.

Smile will be showing off its wares at Booth no. 228 at this week’s Macworld | iWorld show in San Francisco’s Moscone West exhibit hall.

Walmart, Target, eBay Top Women at NBCU Survey

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In its latest reports on women and brands, Women at NBCU has unveiled the September stats of its brand index, a compilation of online search data from Compete, social media buzz data from New Media Strategies as well person-to-person conversations tracked by Keller Fay.The top 25 brands are: 1) Walmart 2) Target 3) eBay 4) Verizon 5) Ford 6) Coca-Cola 7) iPhone 8) AT&T 9) Honda 10) Pepsi 11) iPod 12) Amazon.com 13) Toyota 14) Sears 15) Similac 16) Bank of America 17) Microsoft 18) Netflix 19) Tylenol 20) McDonald’s 21) Sprint 22) Kohl’s 23) Chevrolet 24) Samsung 25) Comcast.among this month’s biggest movers was “One a Day” by Bayer, which is offering consumers an immersive, customized social experience to benefit their overall health and wellness. It was up 241 spots this month from no. 381 to no. 140.”It is amazing to see how quickly a brand’s energy can be elevated by marketing and promotional strategies — even in just a month,” said Tony Cardinale, svp, strategic research insights at NBC Universal Women and Lifestyle Entertainment Networks in a statement. “Social media campaigns continue to spark a lot of dialogue and move the needle, and television remains a powerful influence. we saw multiple cases where strategic TV exposures corresponded with more brand activity.” Brands with exposure during the launch of the broadcast TV season were also some of the biggest movers this month. Dr Pepper, which had a high-profile mention on Fox’s Glee, shot up 19 spots from 83 to 64; Sears, which sponsors CBS’ Survivor: Nicaragua, was up from 19 to 14; and Netflix, which expanded its streaming partnership with NBCU late in the month, advanced to 20 from 18. Video game systems targeted at female consumers also gained significant traction. The release of “PlayStation Move” for Sony PlayStation 3 drove the brand up from 304 to 150. this also may have led to more discussion about its competitor, the Nintendo Wii, which moved 11 spots from 78 to 67. Other big movers were brands that offered fun campaigns directed at children and teens. Applebee’s, which offered a “kids eat free” promotion at select locations on Labor Day, was up 81 spots from 167 to 86. Also, LG, which hosted its annual National Texting Championship aimed at teens, was up 65 spots from 153 to 88. Campbell’s Soup, which is targeting younger consumers with its Facebook Soup Scan Sweepstakes, was up 37 spots from 121 to 84.  Auto companies, which leveraged the power of social media to introduce new car models, also performed well. Chrysler, which unveiled several new 2011 models via Facebook, was up 38 spots from 132 to 94. Ford and Honda, which have also used Facebook in the same way, ranked high (No. 5 and no. 9, respectively). Companies that made news with high-profile changes also got women talking. Heidi Klum’s exit from Victoria’s Secret bumped the brand up 41 spots from 192 to 151.

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