The AA (that’s the British version of the AAA) has a series of travel guides for the iPad, all of which are now free — we assume for a limited time. The AA
If you’re headed over to the UK at some point in the near future, load up your iPad with these on the cheap, and know where to go to get a pint of plain, regardless of where you are.
We first heard about the
Or you could wait until next week, swing by your Starbucks, and pick up a free download card with your venti frappuccino, or whatever.
Initial reviews of the title seem to be overwhelmingly positive.
Full app description after the jump:
Danger. Intrigue. Stealth. Cheese.
SPY mouse is the all-new, bite-sized adventure from the creators of Flight Control & Real Racing.
Embark on a journey of epic proportions, over two years in the making!
Agent Squeak *is* SPY mouse, a super-secret operative serving the needs of mice everywhere.
Can the world’s smallest hero prevail in one of iPhone’s biggest games? His fate’s in your hands!
★ Sneak, scamper and snack your way through 70+ deviously challenging levels!
★ 6 unique worlds, full of adventure, each with their own diabolical hench-cat to outwit.
★ Run circles around your feline foes using all manner of zany gadgets, gizmos and power-ups!
★ Cat trouble? Recruit the help of the exotic Kiska and get your mission back on track.
★ Forever fun with achievements, secret levels and thrilling, action-packed updates!
Slip into the astounding world of SPY mouse and find out how deep the mouse hole goes…
No matter what line of work you are in, there is probably an iPhone app out there for you. The best thing about iPhone apps in general is that it suits virtually every situation: travel, entertainment, productivity, news, etc. The following are five random apps that could make your life easier, especially if you live in a large city like New York.
No matter where you live, one the daily challenges you will face will be how to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible for whatever reason (work, travel, vacation, etc.). One of the best apps for this purpose is CityTransit ($2.99), which features updated maps of the entire subway system. Another reliable app is the Exit Strategy ($3.99), which directs travelers to the subway car that will get them closest to the station exit where they are going. This is great for both locals and visitors who are not very familiar with the subway system. The apps not only help prevent you from getting lost but also save you time and spare you the embarrassment of getting down at the wrong stop.
RunKeeper (Free): Staying healthy is no longer optional, it is essential. This area of our lives has also been touched by a variety of iPhone apps that let us accomplish a variety of tasks with relative ease, from counting the calories that go into our body to advising us on the best possible foods for the day. The RunKeeper helps users keep track of their fitness routine by letting your monitor the speed and distance that you travel. The iPhone manages to accomplish the task by using the inbuilt GPS system and even lets your organize and monitor the data on an online account.
White Noise ($1.99): If you live in the city, there is good chance that you will be subjected to constant noise pollution, even at the “quietest” parts of the city. The Solution to this is White Noise. While, we are yet to develop an app that can put an end to noise pollution, but this one lets you drown it out with something more peaceful.
Shadow Cities (free): no iPhone is complete without a ton of gaming apps that really help you understand its entertainment potential. One interesting app of late is Shadow Cities, which requires users to cast spells to control their cities. The most interesting feature of this app is that it uses the GPS system to battle opponents for the territory in which you live and work.
Firemint has finally released its latest game which is called Spy mouse. It was announced way back in February this year.
Play as Agent Squeak and navigate over 70 levels spread across six unique worlds with an advanced arsenal of gadgets, gizmos, and power-ups. Outwit fiendish hench-cats in his quest to liberate tasty treats without winding up one himself! This tiny package packs in a wealth of content including achievements, secret levels, and more updates to come.
Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.
Once the majority of users get past the initial, frustrating learning curve, then they soon learn that a keyboard on a touchscreen is not half-bad. If we look at it from a size perspective, it is actually superior to a physical keyboard of these dimensions. The flat surface and extra room for finger error contribute to a better experience. Many physical mobile keyboards have a key press that ultimately slows down typing along with keys that seem smaller in an actual block form.
We cannot forget about what may be the iPhone’s saving grace: auto-correct. Auto-correct intelligently fixes errors most of the time, allowing for quicker, more worry-free typing. Even though it can be completely wrong at times, it works well enough, at least until it can be based around both the rest of the sentence’s meaning and the jumbled letters.
While landscape mode is the no-brainer choice for new users, the more experienced including myself have no issues with the smaller keyboard available in portrait mode. I find the iPhone more comfortable to hold in that orientation, so thankfully I can type about just as well either way.
Beyond knocking out more than a few texts and instant messages on an iPhone in a fairly satisfactory fashion, I am also no stranger to typing 1,000-word editorials on it. Truth is, I have practically no complaints for what screen real estate practically allows, even when being such an avid writer.
If the next iPhone does feature a slightly bigger screen, the typing experience could almost become fantastic since there would be more room for each key, leading to a smaller chance for error.
There is one significant reason that the iOS virtual keyboard is great: it’s always available to me. It works, it is usable for long writings, and it I can always pull it out of my pocket and begin typing away. In fact, since the only electronic device I currently have with me is my iPhone, my previous four posts were written with its touchscreen (though the majority of my posts were written on a Mac).
By the way, this post? Written, edited, and published on an iPhone 4.
In resigning as CEO of Apple today, Steve Jobs takes on the role as Chairman of the Board. In that regard, tomorrow will likely be no different than yesterday. Not for Apple, not for us. Except it will be totally different. We’ll still be able to buy iPhones and iPads, we’ll still get iOS 5 and iPhone 5 this October, we’ll still be delighted, and things will still be magical. They just won’t be the same. Steve Jobs has ended the greatest Second Act in the history of a technology company, arguably of any modern business.
Act One saw Steve Jobs co-founding Apple and helping to mainstream the command line interface and the first successful personal computer with the Apple II. He went on to make the graphical user interface popular with Macintosh. Then Apple showed him the door.
Intermission was when Jobs founded NeXT and bought and nurtured Pixar.
Act Two began when Apple started to fail and fail hard and they bought NeXT and brought Steve Jobs back to the company. He went on to launch the iMac, iTunes and iPod, OS X, Apple Retail, iPhone and iPad.
Taken apart, any one of these accomplishments would be astonishing. Taken together, they’re almost unmatchable. They’re world changing, or as Jobs himself might put it, universe denting. He became the personification of Apple, the incarnation, every bit as iconic as the logo. They seemed almost inseparable.
But Jobs was and is not a force of nature, he’s human. His health required him to take not one, but several leaves of absence. He survived pancreatic cancer. He survived a liver transplant. And like even the greatest of heavyweight champions, battles fought, even won, take their toll.
For all his taste and all his vision, one of Steve Jobs’ greatest assets has always been his strategic genius. From the timing of product releases to the timing of his medical leaves, his positioning of Apple executives on stage and within the company has been as meticulously planned as any iPhone or iPad introduction. He’s not holding onto power or position for their own sake. He’s handing over the company in carefully considered steps. He’s leaving on his own terms, even naming his successor — Tim Cook.
Cook takes over one of the most successful, affluent, and influential companies in the world, and he takes it over at its prime. Apple right now is firing on all cylinders. It’s earning record profits after record profits, and a lot of that is due to Cook. He is the best logistics guy in the business, the best COO. But CEO is not COO, and that begs the question — does Cook continue on as COO with some CEO duties, or does Apple start looking for a new COO? It’s often asked if Apple can go on without Steve Jobs as CEO, but equally important is can Apple go on without Tim Cook as COO?
Steve Jobs is the visionary, the man who almost willed into existence the consumer electronics future. Tim Cook is the man who made those visions manifest, who masterminded getting those products onto the shelves with as little waste and as much profit as possible. They’ve worked together in those roles for over a decade, and with spectacular results.
Will competitors see an opening? Will HP quickly un-cancel the TouchPad? Likely not, at least not for a while still. Changes at Apple do not miraculous make for new competing products. Will partners test for weakness? Will a carrier try to strong-arm some crapware onto the iPhone? Again, likely not, not without getting hit so fast and so hard their towers feel it.
Because Steve Jobs hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s changed titles and offices, moved from CEO to Chairman of the board, but he’s still there to lend his vision to Tim Cook’s implementation. He’s still there as part of the strongest team in consumer electronics, with Jony Ive, Phil Schiller, and all the rest. He’s still there to say no when he has to and to help guide Apple, not towards the second star on the left and straight ahead until morning, but straight to the center of liberal arts and computer sciences that has served them so well yesterday and will keep serving them well tomorrow and beyond. And the reason for that is simple:
For Steve Jobs, as much as this is the end of Act Two, it’s also the beginning Act Three.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs giving the commencement speech at Stanford in 2005, and new Apple CEO Tim Cook giving the commencement speech at Auburn in 2010.
[Stanford on YouTube, Auburn on YouTube, thanks Dave.]
