Download This App and Learn To Play Blackjack

Contrary to popular belief, Blackjack is not an easy game to play or master. You could learn how to count cards but you'll get kicked out of the casino and possibly banned, like those MIT students from the book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions or the movie "21".

The "book," not the above mentioned book, suggests you do a lot of things under many a circumstance to beat the house. It's rather complicated and if you're the type who learns on the fly, then I suggest you download Blackjack Strategizer for iOS ($1.99).

It'll teach you basic strategy and the touch gestures are the same gestures you'd use at the tables anyway. The app also crunches and displays your statistics in case you're the analytical type. I played it on the plane ride out to Vegas last night and left the tables with an extra $82.50. [iTunes]

Microsoft attempts to lure Apple iOS developers to its Windows 8 and Windows Phone platforms

“On a rainy day last week, the scene at Microsoft's campus in Mountain View, California, looked rather incongruous: several dozen developers sat in an auditorium, many of them taking notes on Apple laptops, while another programmer, also using a Mac, stood behind a podium flanked with Microsoft's blocky logo,” Rachel Metz reports for MOT Technology Review.

“This wasn't a secret meeting of Microsoft rebels; it was Microsoft's attempt to lure developers who have been building apps for Apple's incredibly popular iOS platform, which runs on the iPad and iPhone, over to its Windows 8 and Windows Phone platforms,” Metz reports. “...With many developers building apps for Apple's gadgets and smartphones and tablets running Android software, the Redmond, Washington-based software giant finds itself in the unfamiliar position of needing to get developers' attention.”

Metz reports, “Microsoft's Windows Phone Store has over 120,000 apps, and the company has said it expects to have 100,000-plus apps in the Windows Store by January. Apple's App Store, by comparison, offers over 700,000 apps for the iPhone and iPad.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Pfft.

U.S. ITC judge wants Samsung to post a bond of 88% of its U.S. smartphone sales due to Apple patent case

“An October 24, 2012 preliminary ruling that held Samsung to infringe four Apple patents could have more drastic consequences for Samsung’s U.S. business than previously known,” FLorian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents. “If the U.S. trade agency affirms the judge’s findings of violations (which the ITC staff supports across the board) and adopts his recommended remedies, Samsung faces the following draconian combination of sanctions.”

a U.S. import ban that would enter into effect after the 60-day Presidential review period following a final ITC decision,

a simultaneous cease-and-desist order that would prohibit the sale of any commercially significant quantities of the imported infringing accused products in the United States (this remedy was denied against HTC), and

the requirement to post a bond of 88% of the value of all mobile phones, 32.5% of the value of all media players, and 37.6% of the value of all tablet computers found to infringe Apple’s patents-in-suit during the Presidential review period.

Much more in the full article here.

Beleaguered RIM posts loss of $114 million; sales tumble 47%; 1 million subscribers lost last quarter

“Research In Motion reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday, but recorded the first-ever drop in its subscriber base barely a month before the crucial launch of the new BB10 smartphone line,” Euan Rocha reports for Reuters.

“Excluding one-time items related to restructuring and other issues, the struggling BlackBerry maker reported a loss of $114 million or 22 cents a share,” Rocha reports. “The company said its subscriber base in the quarter fell to about 79 million from about 80 million in the period ended September 1.”

Read more in the full article here.

“BlackBerry maker Research In Motion reported that sales fell through the floor last quarter,” David Goldman reports for CNNMoney.

“RIM said it is likely to report another loss next quarter as it ramps up its marketing campaign for its new BlackBerry 10 operating system and smartphones, which are slated to go on sale Jan. 30,” Goldman reports. “The company said its sales until then will likely take a hit.”

MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, “until then.” The RIM zombie’s got some magical thinking going on.

“Sales during the quarter fell 47% to $2.7 billion,” Goldman reports. “RIM said it shipped just 6.9 million BlackBerry phones and 255,000 PlayBook tablets over the past three months.”

MacDailyNews Take: To where did they ship those PlayBooks, the Waterloo landfill?

Goldman reports, “Hopes aren’t high for the future of the platform. After dominating the smartphone market for years, RIM controlled less than 5% of smartphone sales in 2012, and it will own just 4% of the market in 2016, according to IDC forecasts.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: “RIM. Dead Company Walking.” – MacDailyNews, August 5, 2010

Related article:
Beware the sucker's rally in beleaguered RIM, Nokia – December 18, 2012

Apps and accessories help make Apple iPad a hand-held darkroom

“Over the years, I've been in and out of relationships with dozens of film cameras, Pentax, Canon, Nikon, Minolta and others, as a result of my passion for photography,” Nick Bilton reports for The New York Times.

“In the late 1990s, after college, I snapped so many photos that I ended up building a 5-by-6-foot darkroom in the corner of my living room in Brooklyn. There, standing amid long, dark strips of film under the glow of a dim red light, I spent countless hours mixing pungent chemicals and developing and printing photographs,” Bilton reports. “I have since retired most of my film cameras. Now, my camera bag is all digital, and my darkroom is 7 inches wide and 9.5 inches long: an Apple iPad.”

Bilton reports, “The immediacy of digital has pushed photographers to want to edit their photos and then share them right away. A number of applications allow you to do this, some free and some costing as much as $20.”

Bilton covers:
SnapSeed (free)
iPhoto ($4.99)
Photoshop Express (free)
Photoshop Touch ($9.99)
ShutterSnitch ($15.99)
Photosmith ($19.99)
piRAWnha ($9.99)
Photoraw ($9.99)

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "David G." for the heads up.]

FTC slams Google for seeking ban of Apple iPhones, iPads

“The Federal Trade Commission is backing Apple in the company's battle with Google over standard-essential patents (SEP), arguing that any attempt to ban a product for allegedly infringing an SEP ‘risks harming competition, innovation, and consumers,’” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD.

“The patents Motorola had attempted to assert against Apple were SEPs, which it is obligated to license on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms,” Paczkowski reports. “And in the FTC's eyes, using the threat of SEP-based injunctions to demand higher royalties or other favorable licensing terms is bad business. It's a ‘patent hold-up,’ to quote the agency's term.”

Paczkowski reports, “It's worth noting that this isn't the first time the FTC has sounded off on SEP-driven lawsuits and Google's efforts to use them to enhance its negotiating stance. Back in June, the agency told the Federal Trade Commission that Google's request for import bans against Microsoft's Xbox and Apple's iPhone for their alleged infringement of its SEPs could hurt competition.”

Read more in the full article here.

8 reasons why Apple’s iPad mini launch should have failed

“A new survey by Cowen and Co. reveals that the iPad mini isn’t cannibalizing sales of iPad but is instead doing exactly what Tim Cook had in mind… taking market share from PC’s,” Jason Schwarz writes for Seeking Alpha.

Schwarz writes, “The process in which Apple’s lineup of iPad’s becomes a PC substitute is happening before our eyes. This holiday quarter is set to be a tipping point in this evolution as it represents the first time Apple has offered a $329 entry point. The iPad mini and iPad 4 sold 3 million units on opening weekend despite the following eight reasons why this particular launch had every reason to fail.”

1. Price/Competition
2. The mini launched only six months after the iPad 3 release
3. The mini launched only weeks after the iPhone 5 release
4. The mini launch missed back to school shopping season
5. The mini launch occurred before the holiday buying season
6. The mini screen relies on old technology, there is no retina display
7. The mini sales numbers represented WiFi-only models
8. Most Apple fans already own an iPad or two

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Arline M." for the heads up.]

People buy more Android phone units and do less with them vs. Apple’s revolutionary iPhone

“It’s been a little over four years since the first Android phone went on sale. Despite Apple’s one-year lead, devices running Google’s mobile operating system now regularly beat Apple’s iPhone in sales figures,” Owen Thomas writes for The Business Insider.

“But when it comes to what people actually do with those phones, studies show an unintuitive result: iOS users simply use their devices more,” Thomas writes. “They surf the Web more. They buy more apps, and developers write more apps for them. They generate more advertising revenue per person. They spend more on e-commerce sites. They even watch more video, which must be frustrating for Google, considering that it owns YouTube and has heavily backed Android in part to contest Apple’s mobile hegemony. Apple’s mobile devices-iPhones, iPads, and iPods-accounted for 60 percent of non-PC video views in the third quarter, according to FreeWheel. Android devices had 30 percent.”

Thomas writes, “Content purchasing is one thing. [But] the gap in content consumption-especially the free, advertising-supported kind, where Google thrives-is more worrisome. That speaks to some ineffable human factor that Google’s algorithms, for all their mechanistic glory, just can’t get right.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: If the only goal was to move handset units, Android’s “winning.” Giving away free phones by the boatload accomplishes nothing, however, when all it results in is second-class status among developers and advertisers, a markedly lower online presence than iOS, and, perhaps most importantly, in a mere sliver of the available profit share which, of course, Apple utterly dominates (See: Apple utterly dominates mobile device market with 6% market share - and 77% of the profits).

After years of knocking off Apple’s patented innovations, all that the so-called geniuses at Google have succeeded in accomplishing is cobbling together the worst collection of cheapskates and/or tech illiterates the world has ever seen this side of Windows PC sufferers.

Just like Mac users, iOS users are the cream of the crop.

So, what was your ultimate goal, Google, selling targeted ads for check cashing outfits, cigarettes, food stamps, and Hee Haw on VHS?

Congrats on your market share “win,” dummies!

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "JES42" for the heads up.]

New Facebook for iOS Adds New Chat Features, Multiple Photo Uploads, and Gifts (Updated)

A new update to the iOS Facebook app rolls out today, and it's bringing some handy new features with it. Now, you'll finally be able to add friends to favorites, upload multiple pictures at a time, and as a bonus, you can swipe left anywhere to open up chat.

The updates to the chat and photo-sharing are ripped straight from the independent Facebook Messenger and Facebook Camera apps, so it should serve to consolidate (or at least start consolidating) that trio of apps into one convenient package. And, if you're in the U.S., there's one more feature packed in, gifts. You can now gift your friends (or enemies) real-life, physical gifts from the comfort of your own iOS device if that's what your into. Even if it's not, there's plenty here for you to appreciate, so go and pick it up.

Update: 9to5mac says that some Facebookers are having issues with the update. BEWARE...for now.

Shake up at Apple, iOS chief bouncing out.

Apple is having some internal shuffling going on. The (former) iOS head honcho Scott Forstall will be leaving the Cupertino company in an as of yet unannounced date in 2013. A majority of his duties and responsibilities have been handed over to Jony Ive, who will also take over the direction for Human Interface. Others inside the Apple campus are said to be helping with the rest of Forstall’s load.

Plenty of comments are hitting various boards and sites celebrating the news. Not too many were happy with the design direction Forstall had taken with the recent Apple products and apps. Things like leather-bound calendars and moccasin skinned friend apps aren’t exactly the rage. Add that to the disaster that is Apple Maps and one has to wonder if these things are a factor in Forstall’s abrupt departure decision.

Keep tuned geeks, we’ll keep you informed!

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City heading to iOS, Android

Back in December last year Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto III on iOS and Android. It was the game’s first appearance on mobile devices and was generally well received even if the controls were a little limiting compared to the original. It joined the previously released GTA: Chinatown Wars which saw a release early in 2010.

This year, Rockstar aims to please mobile gamers again and has announced that GTA: Vice City is also heading to iOS and Android devices soon.

Originally released in October 2002, Vice City is set in the Miami of the 80′s. The re-release for mobile is actually a 10th anniversary celebration, so Rockstar is taking the opportunity to give it a proper update. That includes giving the graphics a HD makeover, releasing a new trailer, and including a load of artwork that has never been seen before from the original development of the game.

If you have already played the game to death, Rockstar may be able to tempt you into purchasing some commemorative merchandise instead. They haven’t announced what that includes yet, but it will all appear on the Rockstar Warehouse online store once the game is available.

The fact Rockstar is promoting Vice City now means the release can’t be too far off. It would be nice to see it appear before the end of October, which means they have until next Wednesday to get it on the App Store and Google Play. As for price, I’m hoping it’s no more than the $4.99 Grand Theft Auto III debuted for last year.

More at Rockstar

Apple calls Samsung’s allegation of jury misconduct ‘frivolous on its face’

“Late on Tuesday, Apple filed a first response to Samsung’s allegations of jury misconduct,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.

“Apple does not oppose Samsung’s motion to seal all of its related accusations but wonders why Samsung brings such a motion after it ‘failed to redact enough material from its jury misconduct motion and supporting papers to keep the substance of its allegations secret,’ a failure that enabled the media to identify that Samsung’s attacks target jury foreman Velvin Hogan,” Mueller reports. “What Apple does oppose is Samsung’s request that the parties be barred from contacting members of the jury. That request doesn’t make sense to Apple given that the media would still be free to talk to any of the jurors, and in light of the willingness of several jurors to give interviews.

Mueller writes, “What I like about Apple’s motion is that Apple is at the same mindful of the jurors’ privacy and not at all afraid to discuss in public what needs to be addressed because of Samsung’s initiative. I continue to be very skeptical of Samsung’s chances of winning a new trial on the grounds of misconduct.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related article:
Samsung asks for new trial in patent dispute with Apple – September 25, 2012

All-New YouTube App Released Ahead of iOS 6, iPad Version Coming Soon

Much like those who ask for a Kleenex when they are looking for a facial tissue or request that you make a Xerox when what they really want is a photocopy, YouTube is becoming a proper noun these days… this place where we all go to see the videos that everybody is talking about. Just ahead of the exected release of iOS 6, our trusted Internet friend has released an update for their iPhone and iPod touch app (with a new iPad version expected very soon)!

Even though the app was already pretty easy to use (my three-year-old daughter is a pro when it comes to finding hilarious-to-her cat videos), but now the interface is even simpler. A quick swipe against your screen gives you access to a new YouTube channel guide that outlines your subscribed channels with instant access to everything you are interested in! An improved search interface will give you suggestions while you type and makes it quicker to sort through the returned videos and channels. As always you can surf the related videos (which should keep you busy for an hour or ten once you find a topic or theme you really enjoy).

In case you were concerned that you would run out of things to watch, the new app also gives you access to tens of thousands more videos!

Embracing social media a little tighter, the app lets you share your favorite finds with your friends via Google+, FaceBook, Twitter or even text messaging directly from the app. Never again will you wonder just how to share that crazy clip of a rock band whose music video takes place atop a series of operating treadmills.

You can grab the updated YouTube app for your iPhone or iPod touch free of charge from the App Store.

The BBC Updates The iPlayer App For iOS Users

Nobody can say that the BBC has not been busy over past couple of weeks, not only have they been covering the Olympics, they have managed to roll out an update for the iPlayer iOS app too. The app now supports retina and playback features, as well as some bug fixes.

According to the BBC, this is what they have done to update the iPlayer iOS app;

We’ve had some great feedback from all the passionate BBC iPlayer users out there and have made some updates.

You asked for better playback so we’ve improved the video performance

Better accessibility, including more Voice Over controls to make it even easier to enjoy BBC iPlayer’s fantastic content

Beautiful retina graphics for the new iPad

Bug fixes and general tidying, so you’ll notice even smoother performance

We hope you enjoy the updated BBC iPlayer, let us know what you think @BBCiPlayer.

The updated BBC iPlayer app is available free from iTunes now!

Source [The Next Web]

Steve Jobs offered iOS patent licensing deal to Samsung for $250 million; stupid Samsung declined

“In October 2010, seven months after Steve Jobs told his biographer that he was going ‘thermonuclear’ on Google’s Android for ripping off the iPhone, he and Tim Cook offered Samsung a secret licensing deal — a fact that Apple saved for last Friday in its multibillion dollar patent trial against the Korean electronics giant that is both a key Apple supplier and the largest manufacturer of Android phones,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.

“According to the late-afternoon testimony of Borks Teksler, Apple’s director of patent licensing strategy, the company’s top executives had been ‘shocked’ in March 2010 when Samsung introduced the first of its line of Galaxy S touchscreen phones. ‘We didn’t understand how a trusted partner would build a copycat product like that,’ he told the jury. Jobs and Cook contacted Samsung and demanded a meeting,” P.E.D reports. “In August 2010, Apple prepared a document that identified dozens of instances where it believed Samsung was using or encouraging others to use Apple’s patented technology, Teksler testified. Then the jury was shown Defendant’s Exhibit No. 586: A Keynote presentation Teksler created in early October that spelled out exactly what Apple wanted in return. ‘Because Samsung is a strategic suppler to Apple,’ the preamble reads, ‘we are prepared to offer a royalty-bearing license for this category of device.’”

Read more in the full article here.

Yahoo Livestand iOS News App Bites The Dust

Throughout the last Yahoo! earnings contact, the organization stated that that it was planning to bring to close and also combine a number of merchandise around Yahoo!’s know-how systems throughout 2012.Sadly for a few, a type of products and services to be shut decrease is definitely the Yahoo! Livestand iOS reports program. Yahoo! appear at first sight moving to a more mobile-products-first growth product, that uses with from the latest launch involving Yahoo!’s Axis visitor plug-in.However your Livestand Yahoo! software that was intended to assist people generate their particular digital mags inside Livestand in no way took hold using consumers, and from now on encounters the particular cut coming from Yahoo!’s products and services. Yahoo! points out:“While we all gotten wonderful suggestions on Livestand’s design and it acquired any 4-star status while in the App Store, all of us dedicated themselves to continuously gauge plus scrutinize what’s doing the job and just what exactly isn’t. We now have many userful stuff here from Livestand and are also make an effort to using those ideas towards the introduction of potential products that usually are superior in-line by using Yahoo!’s healthy cellular method.”