pods

Recycle old iOS devices into always-on video messaging units

Perch is an iOS app, though there isn't an iPad-specific version yet. The idea is you take an iOS device like an iPhone, attach it to your wall, and start up the Perch app. It just hangs out there, waiting for someone to come along.

Perch is always on. It uses facial recognition to identify a person who steps up to it, gives you a countdown, then automatically starts to record. You share your message ("I finally reached Level 60 in World of Warcraft!") and it sends it along to the remote users in your Perch family. Those people can check the message at their leisure and then record and send replies. … Read more

Top travel apps for iOS

Between crowded airports, winter delays, and luggage loaded with gifts, holiday travel can be stressful. But with a little planning, you can make your trip a little easier from start to finish. So rather than gathering up a collection of apps that help you book flights, we decided to make a different kind of travel collection.… Read more

Apple selling refurbished iPads, MacBooks, and iPods on eBay?

Maybe it's that Black Friday shopping time of year or maybe Apple is trying an experiment, but it appears that the company now may be selling its refurbished products on eBay.

According to 9to5Mac, which noticed the site a few weeks ago, the eBay store has been up for about a month, and many aspects of it exactly mimic Apple's Web store. For example, the refurbished products are the exact same price and come with the same perks as the Apple Store, like a one-year warranty, original OS, and "final quality inspection by Apple."

Operating under … Read more

Top holiday cooking apps on iOS

Are you hosting Thanksgiving or bringing a dish to a potluck? If so, plans are probably already in place for the turkey, side dishes, and desserts, but there might be a chance to take your recipes to the next level -- if you have the right apps.

There are several cooking apps for both iPhone and Android that are great year-round, but they also often have special featured recipe collections around the holidays. If you want to kick your green-bean casserole (or any other holiday dish) up a notch, I suggest you take a look at what these apps have to offer.… Read more

Apple approves 1 millionth iOS app, tracker says

Apple has approved 1 million iOS apps, according to an application discovery company.

Appsfire revealed the findings on its Twitter account yesterday. In an e-mailed statement to CNET, an Appsfire spokesperson said that its tally includes all of the apps "that have been submitted and approved by Apple and that went live in the App Store" since its launch in 2008. The spokesperson was quick to point out that the tally does not include those apps that have been submitted and rejected.

The Next Web was first to report on the Appsfire tally.

Apple announced last month that … Read more

Flayvr for iOS brings organization to your Camera Roll

Note to Apple: Nice job with the cameras and all, but Camera Roll? Not so great.

See, browsing photos on an iDevice kind of sucks. You're stuck either swiping through tiny, disorganized thumbnails or paging through endless full-screen snapshots to find what you're after.

Flayvr for iOS turns your Camera Roll into nicely organized albums, offering a much cooler way to view and share your snapshots.

When you run the app, it automatically groups your photos by date and presents them in a scrolling list. Each dated group (or "flayvr") consists of a title and four … Read more

Living with the iPad Mini: Three weeks and counting

OK, I'll admit it. The iPad Mini hasn't left my hands in the last three weeks. It's been no contest, really. While the larger fourth-gen iPad has sat alone by my bedside table, the Mini has gone on field trips on the bus, gotten dragged in my jacket pocket while I dropped my kid off at school, been coddled at the cafe over breakfast, and slipped alongside my laptop on work excursions.

As I predicted when I reviewed it, the Mini's had a hard time leaving my hands, because few places seem inappropriate for it. At a Kindle size, it's bedroom-friendly. It'll set up nicely on a kitchen counter. It slides into otherwise lesser-used front pockets on backpacks. And it might be the best gaming handheld Apple's ever made, based on the sheer size of the screen and its thin, two-hand-friendly frame.

But, what does that mean?… Read more

Great local search apps for iOS

I was going through the app listings the other day and came across LocalScope, a unique local search tool that helps you find things near your current location. Obviously, many people already use Google Maps (no current version for iOS) for this purpose, and the Yelp-powered Apple Maps gets better every day, but after looking at LocalScope (reviewed below), I went on a search for other apps that tailor their results just for what is right around your area.

This week's collection of apps is all about searching for services around your location. The first gives you tons of listings and a surprising bonus feature for finding your destination. The second offers a slick radial interface and tons of categories to pick from. The third is LocalScope, and uses social data to find places, videos, and images from people around your location.… Read more

In your FaceTime: Apple gets sued by VirnetX -- again

VirnetX, which has already won $368.2 million in damages, isn't quite done with Apple.

The patent holding and security software company, which earlier this week won an earlier suit against Apple in a Texas court, has now slapped the electronics giant with a new lawsuit. As in the prior complaint, VirnetX is accusing Apple of infringing four of its networking patents through the use of FaceTime.

Those patents, Nos. 6,502,135, 7,418,504, 7,921,211 and 7,490,151, cover advancements for secure communication over the Internet. That includes technology for creating a virtual private … Read more