Finally a Text to Speech Program That Even a
Blind Man Can Use

post from prMac on 20 April 2012 10:47:00 PM. © prMac

Data by Design is proud to introduce The Fat Finger 1.0.1 for iPad. The Fat Finger app is a text to speech program that is intended to be used by both children and adults that have difficulty accurately selecting letters from a keyboard. The user of this app will touch the keyboard in the area of the intended letter or number. A separate screen will then open up with six larger letters or numbers from that area. After a selection is made the program automatically returns to the main keyboard.

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http://prmac.com/release-id-41519.htm

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Printopia

post from Daring Fireball on 20 April 2012 09:04:24 PM. © Daring Fireball

My thanks to Ecamm Network for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote Printopia. Printopia is a terrific Mac utility that makes any printer connected to your Mac available to apps on the iPhone and iPad. In short, it brings to AirPrint to all printers. Plus it lets you send files to your Mac instead of printing them. See Dan Frakes’s five-mouse Macworld review of Printopia, and download the free demo.

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http://www.ecamm.com/mac/printopia/?df

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Forbes: What Apple CEO Tim Cooks Visit to Valve
Means

post from Daring Fireball on 20 April 2012 07:03:21 PM. © Daring Fireball

Uh, it means you don’t believe unsubstantiated crap from Apple Insider.

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/15/what-apple-ceo-tim-cooks-visit-to
-valve-means/

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Andrew Winn Releases Fishing Budget for iPad &
iPhone/iPod touch

post from prMac on 20 April 2012 06:52:00 PM. © prMac

Indie developer, Andrew Winn introduces Fishing Budget 1.0, now available exclusively for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Fishing Budget allows you to keep track of your spending and lets you know when you are over budget. It includes a simple pie chart illustrates a summary of the top 10 spending categories. It has visual highlighting using a Red or Green light to show if over or within your budget. With this app, the user can create a monthly fishing spending budget with detailed descriptions.

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http://prmac.com/release-id-41419.htm

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Valve Co-Founder Gabe Newell Says Meeting With
Tim Cook Never Happened

post from Daring Fireball on 20 April 2012 06:03:56 PM. © Daring Fireball

Kate Cox, quoting Newell from a podcast interview:

We actually, we all sent mail to each other, going, “Who’s TimCook meeting with? Is he meeting with you? I’m not meeting withTim Cook.” So we’re… it’s one of those rumors that was stated sofactually that we were actually confused.
No one here was meeting with Tim Cook or with anybody at Applethat day. I wish we were! We have a long list of things we’d loveto see Apple do to support games and gaming better. But no, wedidn’t meet with Tim Cook. He seems like a smart guy, but I’venever actually met him.

I am shocked — shocked! — that Apple Insider would publish complete bullshit.

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http://kotaku.com/5903555/gabe-newell-says-valve+apple-meeting-didnt-happen

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Cupcakes! Food Network builds an interactive
cookbook

post from Apple on 20 April 2012 05:04:15 PM. © Apple

Food Network?s digital strategy has always been fairly straightforward: to supplement its cable TV content and promote its on-air talent. Consequently its website, social media efforts and mobile apps are all linked to its programming — aggregating recipes, blogs and video from its shows and celebrity chefs. But this week Food Network deviated from that strategy.

It launched what can only be described as digital interactive coffee table recipe book centered on the theme of today?s hippest dessert: cupcakes. The iPad app (available for $2.99 in iTunes App Store) is stocked with lush interactive photographs and video, designed to entice the food fetishist in us all, and while it?s full of recipes and instructive lessons, it?s an easy app to flip through, letting you swipe between one tantalizing cupcake image to the next ? just like the bound food-porn tomes that grace end tables and bookstore cookbook displays around the world.

The app is slick, which immediately raises my suspicions. In general, pretty cookbooks are a waste of money ? the quantity and quality of photographs in cookbooks are usually in inverse proportion to the usefulness of the recipes they illustrate. But Bob Madden, GM and SVP of online brands for Food Network and The Cooking Channel, said his team designed the app to be a useful kitchen aid as well as eye candy. FN filled the app with instructional videos demonstrating baking and frosting techniques and it tested every recipe in FN?s ~~San Francisco~~ New York City test kitchens.

In addition, FN isn?t just repurposing recipes and videos from its TV shows and website for the app. It contains some cupcake ideas from Alton Brown and other network personalities, and it features a section of recipes from its FN program “Cupcake Wars,” but most of its content is original. The photos and videos were shot and the recipes collected, refined and compiled specifically for the app, Madden said.

So is Food Network, which is jointly owned by Scripps Networks Interactive and the Tribune Company, building up a side business in digital cookbook publishing? Not exactly, Madden said. The app isn?t free and it does contain advertising from Food Network sponsors, but ultimately apps like “Cupcakes” — and even FN’s print cookbook business — are designed to promote the Food Network and Cooking Channel brands. You?ll probably see more efforts like “Cupcakes” to create content that exists apart from its TV programming, Madden said, but FN looks at digital content as way to expand the content available to its core TV fan base as well as create niche or segmented content it can?t offer over its cable channels.

I?ll admit, I?m not much of a baker and my tolerance for cutesy cupcakes is low, but this app is impressive. It utilizes the new capabilities of the tablet format well. For instance there?s a frosting section that let?s you scroll through a palette of different icing colors. You tap on a frosting color and a screen pops up detailing the exact proportion of colored gels necessary to reproduce it. We?re starting to see more and more interactive cookbooks designed specifically for the tablet format. Inkling?s digital version of The Professional Chef, Food52′s Holiday Recipe and Survival Guide, and Open Air Publishing’s Mixology are all good examples.

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http://paidcontent.org/2012/04/20/cupcakes-food-network-builds-an-interactive-coo
kbook/

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Oracle v. Google: The Show So Far

post from Daring Fireball on 20 April 2012 05:04:13 PM. © Daring Fireball

Andrew Orlowski:

?Please don?t demonstrate to any Sun employees or lawyers,?Rubin warned an engineer in 2008, as he prepared to take Androidon the road.

Insert “Android is open” joke here.

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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/20/oracle_google_java_lawsuit_summary/

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Apple Airs New iPhone Commercials Featuring
Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel

post from Daring Fireball on 20 April 2012 05:04:13 PM. © Daring Fireball

I’ve been thinking about these two spots all week, and something about them that doesn’t sit quite right with me. It says something that there was speculation at first that they were AT&T-produced spots, but they’re not — they’re from Apple.

I think the point is to elevate Siri to celebrity status, to make sure everyone knows what (who) she is. But I think they play more like run-of-the-mill celebrity ads — more like just, Hey, Sam Jackson has an iPhone.

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http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/16/verizonapple-airs-new-iphone-tv-ad-featuring-
samuel-l-jackson-and-siri/

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Synaptic Wave and Cult of Mac make Tesla Wars
free for a limited time

Tesla Wars for iPhone and iPad is one of the most popular tower defense games with over 2.5 million downloads. The unique gameplay combines tower defense and arcade genres into an action-packed addicting mix. Tesla Wars originality and explosive fun have ensured uncountable positive reviews of competent critics. In collaboration with Cult of Mac the game will be free for a week from April 20. There are 15 types of enemies in the Tesla Wars.

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http://prmac.com/release-id-41563.htm

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Games for the weekend: Sky Gnomes

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we?ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome enough to keep you busy until Monday, at least.

Sky Gnomes ($0.99 Universal) is a unique social racing game where you customize snow machines driven by gnomes. Powered by snow, it is more difficult that you would think to catch the power-boosting snowflakes as you hurl garden gnomes towards the ground.

Sky Gnomes

The concept is simple: You maneuver your snow machine in what can only be described as a controlled fall with a virtual joystick. The physics behind each snowflake are impressive, as catching them proves to be just as difficult as trying to catch a snowflake on your tongue in real life. As you catch each snowflake you are rewarded with a power boost, which speeds you toward the landing pad even faster. The more snowflakes you catch in rapid succession, the faster you boost your snow machine toward the finish line.

Sky Gnomes

Just when you think you are getting the hang of your snow machine, you start to realize that you are actually racing against other online garden gnomes, who are each learning to master their snow machines as well. Like clockwork, every 24 hours the band of 10 competing gnomes you are grouped with perfect their skill and improve on their race times. The goal is the same as in any race, to be the fastest. But don’t worry too much about being grouped with fellow racers that leave you behind. Each day you are re-grouped into a league of 10 based on your prior day’s performance. And it really does a good job at pairing you up with similarly skilled opponents.

Sky Gnomes

Just like the real racing world, its not all about the skill of the driver. You have access to what appears to be an infinitely configurable snow machine. There are your basic upgrades like speed and acceleration. But to keep things interesting, you are limited to three trinket slots on your snow machine, and there are 15 different trinkets with three different upgrade levels each to choose from. Each trinket modifies the flying characterizing of your snow machine in different ways. There are also four racing power ups to choose from that give you added abilities during each race, like increasing the time of each boost period. Experimenting with each different ability, trinket and power up is what keeps the game interesting. As you near the end of each 24-hour segment, you are forced to make some hard choices as to which combination works best for you.

Sky Gnomes

All modifications and power ups are purchased with coins you collect by winning races, achieving objectives and placing in the top three each day. There are even coins you can collect during the race. This can be a distraction from catching snowflakes if you do not happen to have the Coin Furnace trinket, which powers your snow machine with coins as well as snowflakes. Of course, there are also in-app purchases that you can take advantage of to quickly modify your snow machine in style. But your gains may prove to be short-lived, as you will be re-grouped the next day with 10 other individuals that decided to fund their own racing snow machine just as you did.

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