Tag Archives: news

Angry Birds

Sneak Peak: Angry Birds Valentine’s Day Edition

If your like me your an Angry Birds addict (I’m addicted to almost all games) and your looking forward to new levels in Rovio’s famous game Angry Birds, well your in luck. Rovio will be introducing a free update to Angry Birds seasons which already includes the Halloween and Christmas editions, the free update will be a Valentine’s Day themed edition of Angry Birds.

Below, I uploaded a group of images of the upcoming iOS game, which will be available for Angry Birds fans on February 14.

iPad 2

No Home Button on Next iPad?

In the first Beta release of iOS 4.3, we saw that Apple added some interesting new multitouch gestures. Apple noted this:

Test Multi-Touch Gestures for iPad
This beta release contains a preview of new Multi-Touch gestures for iPad. You can use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen; swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar; and swipe left or right between apps. We are providing this preview before releasing them to the public to understand how these gestures work with your apps. Test them and give us your feedback on the Apple Developer Forums

I noticed one thing, like the iPod Nano there is no home button, therefore to exit to the home screen you have to pinch the screen, so I’m assuming that the next generation iPad will have no home button due to these new multitouch gestures. I amusing this because Apple just released the first beta of iOS 4.3 and the next iPad is suppose to be released or announced sometime in February so the dates are all adding up. So I’m making a prediction that the next iPad will have no home button.

Let me know what you think by emailing me at conner@techgeec.com or comment on the post below!

ios 4

BREAKING: Apple Seeds iOS 4.3 to Developers

Apple just seeded iOS 4.3 Beta 1 to developers! I’m going to see what is in the new firmware and update this post A.S.A.P.
UPDATE #1: The firmware works for iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV

UPDATE #2: It’s still unknown at this time what is

in iOS 4.3 since all developers are currently downloading the firmware and haven’t had a chance to install it but this is what is rumored to be in the new OS: Support for personal hotspot functionality as seen on th

e Verizon iPhone. Possible support for recurring billing for App Store content subscriptions such as News Corp.’s forthcoming tablet-focused news publication, The Daily.

UPDATE #3: It’s official, the new iOS Beta allows devs to send video from apps or websites to an Apple TV. There’s also a new beta of the Apple TV software for testing it out . The Apple TV doesn’t have any version notes, so I don’t know if it offers any additional features. One thing I’ve noted is the I’m not seeing any mention of mobile hotspot functionality, and considering the Verizon iPhones we saw were running iOS 4.2.5, we’ve got a feeling everything still hasn’t been merged up. I’ll let you know if I find anything else out.

UPDATE #4: Apple posted this note on the firmware discription.

Quote (via Apple Developer):

“Test Multi-Touch Gestures for iPad
This beta release contains a preview of new Multi-Touch gestures for iPad. You can use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen; swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar; and swipe left or right between apps. We are providing this preview before releasing them to the public to understand how these gestures work with your apps. Test them and give us your feedback on the Apple Developer Forums.”

UPDATE #5: I’ve also noticed that Apple totally revoked the firmware beta for the iPod Touch 2G and iPhone 3G, does this mean that those devices have become another member of the Apple Graveyard? Or does it mean that since this update is focused on AirPlay and those devices don’t have AirPlay support? I’ll let you now soon!

UPDATE #6: Looks like there is one more update, it seems that Apple has included the new mobile hotspot feature that we saw yesterday in the Verizon iPhone announcement in the new iOS 4.3 Beta 1 update.

UPDATE #7: Looks like there are a few more features. The biggest one, the iPad mute switch can now be toggled back to the rotation lock switch. Another feature is Apple adopted a new FaceTime icon for iPod Touch, and iPhone 4. One more is that Apple now allows users to have Full Screen iAd banners.

UPDATE #8: Gizmodo posted a video here: (iPad Multitouch Gesters) showing off the iPad multitouch gesters. Hope you enjoy.

Boxcar Logo

Boxcar CEO Q&A


I recently emailed the CEO of your guys favorite app of all time, Angry Birds! I’m just kidding, I emailed the CEO of Boxcar. His name is Jonathan George and I was very fortunate to get a response from him. I asked him a few questions that are listed below and he was nice enough to answer them for me. Hope you guys enjoy.

1.) Why did you want to start Boxcar?

I started Boxcar on a whim in June 2009.  Push notifications had just been released with iOS 3.0 and I had missed a direct message on Twitter from someone.  I thought: it’d have been awesome to receive that via a push notification.  A few hours later I had a small prototype built.  I started it that Friday evening and submitted it to Apple two days later.  The first version only opened 2 Twitter clients and you could use it with just one Twitter account.  Even though it was ugly, slow and tiny, it worked.  It brought a new experience to something that badly needed an overhaul. It’s changed a lot since that first launch. 

2.) Why is Boxcar free? I could see paying $10 for this useful app.

Boxcar is free because we want as many people to use Boxcar as possible.  Without users, Boxcar wouldn’t be what it is today.  We’ll be experimenting with new revenue models early next year, but Boxcar will always be free to download. Of course, if you love Boxcar, you can help support us by using in app purchase to disable the ads. 

3.) Are their any big future updates coming to the app you can tell us?

We have several top secret projects underway that may see the light of day, but nothing that we can discuss right now.

4.) When did Boxcar start becoming “big?”

I always thought of Boxcar as being “small” up until Jeff, Josh and Conor joined me a few months ago.  Boxcar was a side project until they joined in.  If something needed to be done, I’d do it.  Now when I wake up in the morning, there is already more done than I would have done in a single day before.

That’s probably the biggest defining moment, even though there are others. For example, I used to tell myself “Oh, someday Twitter will introduce push”.  And then Twitter did introduce push, but people kept on using Boxcar for Twitter push notifications.  Why?  Because we’re great at it.  It’s what we do.  And at that point you realize you’ve built something that people love.

5.) What do you think when you see your app reviewed on a big tech website or talked about on YouTube?

It’s amazing, really.  I still get ridiculously excited anytime I see *anyone* write an article about Boxcar.  I always e-mail any press we get to my mom and dad to share with them.

You guys can contact Jonathan at jonathan@boxcar.io

And during our email conversations he said he takes pride in answering every email and will get back to you. I might not be right away but he will eventually get back.

We Rule Quest

We Rule for Mac? Let’s See in my Interview With the Developers!

I recently had a “interview” with the people over at the famous addicting game We Rule. You all know I’m addicted to We Rule and with the launch of the Mac AppStore I was very curious if they would release a version for the Mac. I would love if they did that, so I tweeted them (that’s how I start most interviews) I asked them if they were thinking about or working on We Rule for the Mac and they replied back with this.

Quote (via @WeRuleGame):

@connerowen We’re taking at look at the new platform – more details when we have them.

So this means that most likely that they will release a version for the Mac soon. So if you addicted to We Rule like me and have a Mac, You will be soon able to play We Rule on the Mac.

If you want to add me on We Rule my gamer tag is connerowen
I always accept all orders as well.

verizon iphone announced

Verizon iPhone Coming January 11

Verizon has just sent out invitations for a keynote address to be held in New York City Tuesday, January 11th at 11:00 A.M. The topic of the event is currently unknown at the moment but the usual speculation of this is the Verizon iPhone. Now every event most people always assume the Verizon iPhone and it is getting old, but this time it is the real deal. This is why:

1. AppAdvice.com Claims:

Quote (via AppAdvice):

“More precisely, Verizon invited some unusual people to the event, like MG Siegler from Techcrunch, a self-proclaimed Apple Fanboy, as well as Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, who exclusively covers Apple news. Both are not usually invited for Verizon events. Then, we should also point out that Gizmodo hasn’t been invited, which is unprecedented for a Verizon event according to them. They believe this might have something to do with the fact that they’re persona non grata over at Apple ever since they leaked the iPhone 4.”

2. Verizon did not invite Gizmodo, now Gizmodo is always invited to all Verizon Keynotes, but they are now banned from Apple Events ever since they got the leaked iPhone 4, and they were not invited this time so that makes us lead that this event is focused on Apple.

3. The WSJ Reported:

Quote (via The Wall Street Journal):

Breaking: We’ve confirmed that Verizon will announce on Tuesday that the iPhone is coming to its network”

Another “clue” that we haven’t figured out is that it will be announces at 1/11/11 at 11:00 A.M. If you can figure out the clue, email me at conner@techgeec.com

So this all leads up to believe that their is a 90% chance that their will be a Verizon iPhone announce.

We Farm Safari Review



If your an avid We Farm user you would know that ngmoco:) has been waiting for Apple approval to approve another new app to the “We” family. This time it moves your We Farm over to a new app called We Farm Safari. Now don’t worry. Your entire farm gets transferred, all you have to do is enter your Plus+ username and password.

Now the new app has all of the same features of your usual We Farm but if you use We Rule you know about realms which allows you to extend your kingdom into other land plots. Now this is where “Safari” comes into We Farm. We farms lets you extend into an Outback, Serengeti, Savannah, and the Outback. Each “Realms” has a new floor that is represented by the terrain in each biome. Your “Main Land” is now called The Homestead” now.

This app ads new building, crops, animals, and more.

This is brand new into the app store and is most importantly free!

If you need a friend to order from be sure to add connerowen (me) I always except all orders.<

iBooks Folders Coming Soon



Recently some people I believe at 9to5Mac we getting curious and emailed Steve Jobs and they basically said, “We love using iBooks to house all of our PDF’s and we thought it would be amazing to have the PDF’s in folders to stay organized.” and Steve replied “coming.”

Well now 9to5Mac reports the following:

“From looking at these Apple documents it appears that collections will be a button you tap on the iBooks toolbar that brings up a list of all your collections but it also appears there will be ‘collections’ actually sitting on your bookshelf.

Also, you will now be able to take PDF’s you have stored in iBooks and e-mail them off to whomever you would like. Printing PDF’s via AirPrint will also come in this update which should be handy for many users. Apple will also be very clear to say that the printing and e-mailing of actual books is not happening.”

So basically this means that Apple wouldn’t have to release a software update to have folders in iBooks. Since iBooks is an app in the App Store all we would need is just a small app update.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Google Docs Editing Comes to iOS



Back in September Google claimed that they will be allowing iOS editing on Google Docs. Well they’ve followed through to this claim and released it!

As an avid Google Docs user I find myself wanting to edit on my iPad since I very rarely use my computer after I got my iPad. And until now you never were available to do that!

This is very exciting to Google Docs users….leave me what you think in the comments!

Facebook Announces Email Service



Facebook recently announced that slowly over the following months that they will be revealing a new email service. This will allow users to get a @facebook.com email address.

Facebook claims that they want to reinvent the email (Which everyone claims to do)

Do you think this will be a win or a fail?

Let me know below.