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This iPhone app will make your kid smile before every picture

It's always a bit frustrating when you're trying to get your child to pose for a photo and they won't even look at your iPhone, let alone smile for it. In the past I covered GroupShot, an iOS app that combines multiple photos to ensure everyone is looking at the camera in the final shot. A great app, but it doesn't solve the problem of actually getting your child to smile.

Instead of jumping around, making noises and embarrassing yourself, let the iPhone app Picasound make animal sounds for you.

Using the app is very easy:… Read more

Friday Poll: Should Apple pull the NRA shooting app?

The National Rifle Association's recent release of an App Store game called NRA: Practice Range has stirred up an impressive amount of controversy lately. Supporters and detractors alike are chiming in on the app and an online petition has been started demanding its removal from the App Store.

The reviews in the App Store range from complaints about the bad controls to users praising the gun safety tips.

I checked out the app for myself. As far as first-person shooters go, it's pretty innocuous. There's no blood spurting out from the vaguely humanoid indoor range targets. For … Read more

Hearst gives iPad owners early dibs on magazines

Publisher Hearst has a new initiative that gives iPad owners early access to digital versions of its magazines.

Apple today quietly launched a new section in its App Store called "Read them here first," with a listing of Hearst-owned magazines that can be had digitally before they arrive on newsstands or on competing digital platforms.

Hearst has 20 of its titles involved in the program, including Esquire, Car and Driver, and Popular Mechanics. A company spokeswoman said the lead time varies by publication.

The move gives Apple a leg up against competing digital newsstand products, particularly apps Zinio … Read more

NRA's iPhone shooting app triggers petition for its removal

A new shooting game bearing the NRA name has enraged a number of people who are now petitioning Apple to remove it from the App Store.

Released this past Sunday, NRA: Practice Range features a virtual shooting gallery in which you can fire at targets by tapping the screen. The app offers you a few handguns and rifles for free, but you can upgrade to such weapons as an AK-47 assault rifle or an MK-11 sniper rifle.

Compared with scores of other video games, NRA: Practice Range is rather tame, despite the ability to use assault and sniper rifles. You'… Read more

Apple, Amazon ordered to try settlement in 'app store' suit

A judge has ordered Apple and Amazon to meet to try to work out an agreement about whether "app store" is a generic term before the case goes to court.

U.S. Judge Elizabeth Laporte ordered the two companies to meet on March 21 with their attorneys in tow and work to negotiate and settle the lawsuit, according to Bloomberg. It seems that the judge is looking to find other ways for the companies to come to an agreement besides taking the matter to trial.

The battle began in March 2011 when Apple sued Amazon accusing the online … Read more

PayPal's in-store payment partners grow to 23 retailers

Increasingly bringing its service offline, PayPal announced today that it has nearly doubled its brick-and-mortar store lineup to 23 retailers that now accept its payment service.

"Delivering valuable digital and mobile payments is alive and thriving, and consumers all over the U.S. will now start seeing PayPal more where they shop every day, including the grocery store and at the gas pump," PayPal's vice president of retail services Don Kingsborough said in a statement. "No bells, whistles or buzzes -- just technology that works and gets the most from your money."

Throughout the U.… Read more

Use 1Password for iOS? Bookmark this shortcut now

1Password is a popular password management app for iOS and OS X users. 1Password 4.1 was recently released, bringing with it a new URL scheme feature. The URL schemes allow you to append the letters "op" to any URL in mobile Safari to have the page opened in 1Password. In turn you can quickly log into the site using your saved password information in 1Password. The new feature is a huge time saver. You no longer have to switch back and forth from Safari and 1Password to copy and paste your password.

Even though adding two letters … Read more

First all-digital library in the U.S. will look like an Apple Store

The first book-free library in the U.S. may look pretty familiar to visitors. That's because it's being modeled after an Apple retail store.

Bexar County, Texas, which includes San Antonio, will launch the nation's first all-digital public library system, dubbed BiblioTech, this year. A prototype location on the county's south side is slated to open this fall, and the county hopes to open similar libraries in the future.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff got his inspiration for the all-digital library from Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

"… Read more

New-to-vinyl converts talk about the joys of playing LPs

I've heard the naysayers for years, the ones that say vinyl is a fad, or that kids buy records just because they think LPs are cool. But the fact is vinyl sales keep going up year after year. I'd be the first to admit that playing an LP is more of a hassle than listening to Spotify, so why do people who grew up listening to CDs and files invest in a turntable, and search out their favorite music on LP? Why do they do it?

Recently, I talked with a few music lovers who grew up in … Read more