A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable for Apple to be preparing official support for gaming controllers on iOS, but the Tim Cook era of the Cupertino company seems a lot more open to new ideas. For quite a while, it's been of public knowledge that iOS would be allowing third parties to create gaming controllers for iPhones and iPads to take full advantage of the App Store's increasing gaming prowess, and MOGA's Ace Power effort looks to have been inadvertently showcased thanks to a YouTube clip.
We all thought that writing down notes was dying off, especially with services like Evernote fast becoming the place where we put just about everything. Note-taking has become a much more digital experience these days, and jotting things down on an iPhone or iPad is just a way of life for many of us. But that doesn't mean that there isn't still a place for the humble pen, especially if there's a good way to combine the traditional act of handwriting notes with the highly organized, highly digital way that Evernote users would keep track of their notes. That's where Livescribe comes in.
The likes of Instagram and Vine, as well as the dramatic improvements to smartphone cameras over the past couple of years, have meant that millions more have tried their hand at amateur photography. But while the number of apps related to snapping images and capturing video is now perhaps in the tens of thousands, third-party accessories have also found a fairly good platform from which to thrive. The Olloclip for iPhone, a clip-on peripheral that allows iPhone users to manipulate the lens in all kinds of weird and wonderful ways, has been a stand-out in this field, and now, the team behind it has returned to Kickstarter in order to gain the backing of the new version of Õlloclip.
For a company that will ultimately live or die based on the interest shown in their product by the iOS community, it is vitally important to have a strong relationship with Apple Inc. In the case of Anki it can be pretty much be assumed that their bond with the Californian giants is relatively strong considering they were asked to unveil their maiden product - the Anki Drive - during the keynote speech of this year's Worldwide Developer Conference. That first Anki product managed to generate a lot of interest and it's now been announced that the innovative hardware will be available to purchase on October 23rd.
Apple's product design has been an instrumental component in their market dominance for the past few years. Combine their beautiful hardware aesthetics with the ease of use of their software, and you have a recipe for selling a lot of products. Under Steve Jobs' direction, as they became the market leader, Apple rarely released a product which could have been considered to have 'questionable design'. Strangely enough, however, the new iPhone 5c came with a case that could only be described as having questionable design.
iOS 7 is being touted at the biggest innovation in the history of iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, and rightly so, because the kind of feature and visual overhaul that this version of the OS brings to Apple’s fantastic hardware is unparalleled. However, it isn’t all sunshine and butterflies, because such a major update means a lot of pre-existing content either needs to be updated, or has simply become redundant. Such is the case with a special genre of iHardware cases, whereby known as the gaming cases. Since they interact with software at a very integral level, such an update was bound to have an effect. And now, GameCase appears to have emerged as the first-ever official iOS 7 gaming case for devices running iOS.
Twelve South’s HiRise For iPhone 5 And iPad mini Lets You Mount Your iDevice Above Your Desk [VIDEO]
iPhone peripherals are certainly not hard to come by in today's market, and this is perhaps not all that surprising given that the Cupertino smartphone is by far the most popular model available. But finding good quality accessories is a different ball game completely, with many cheap pretenders swamping the industry among the rare, noteworthy gems. Twelve South is a US-based company dedicated to bringing Apple-centric items of the highest order, and the new HiRise for iPhone 5 and iPad mini makes for a very practical, eye-catching stand.
When Apple announced the original iPhone back in 2007, perhaps the biggest thing that Steve Jobs spoke about at the time was the new way of inputting data onto the device. Before then, smartphones had clunky hardware keyboards and small screens but now, post-iPhone, things were going to change, with large screens and software keyboards becoming the norm.
Technology, and more specifically mobile technology, seems to develop incredibly quickly. As things change in the smartphone space, bigger screens and larger handsets seem to be on trend whilst durability and device toughness never seem to get a look-in on the frontline features of new devices. As such, a case is a must have on many of today's flagship smartphones, and the iPhone 5 is no exception. Whilst the aluminum build of the iPhone 5 provides a very strong base, the glass on the back and screen are all too easily broken.
Of all the uses a smartphone can bring to the table, universal remote facilities are utilized by many a consumer. While some devices come equipped with an infrared sensor right out of the box for this very purpose (among others), the vast majority, including Apple's iPhone, do not offer such a feature as standard. Luckily, renowned peripheral expert Logitech has come through with its nifty Harmony Ultimate Hub, which allows you to turn virtually any smartphone into an all-singing, all-dancing universal remote control for just about any piece of kit you may have lying around. Details after the jump!
