Finnish game studio Rovio has begun to drop hints about its next game -- and its first outside the Angry Birdiverse. Amazing Alex will be based on the game Casey's Contraptions, which Rovio recently acquired.

Rovio CEO Mikael Hed told a Finnish TV channel that the game will focus on Alex, "a curious young boy who loves to build things." The Next Web quotes Ville Jeijari, Rovio's VP of franchise development:

The "gameplay is a perfect fit in our arsenal with its approachable, fun and highly addictive take on the physics puzzler genre," adding "We are currently reworking the title to enhance it, and getting ready to re-introduce it in a true 'expect the unexpected' Rovio style launch to an even larger audience."

Casey's Contraptions, which has since been deleted from the App Store, was an educational physics-based title that launched a year ago. Amazing Alex should have somewhat similar gameplay, but polished to Rovio's exacting standards.

Help Casey get his toys back by building crazy contraptions. Create Rube Goldberg-like machines with toys and everyday items to solve puzzles and playtime scenarios. See the solutions your friends came up with, and share your own instantly with Game Center.

The fun doesn't stop there! Create your own contraptions with the toys you get back, and challenge your friends through email to solve them. You can use slingshots, RC trucks, darts, ropes, magnets, balloons, trapdoors, punching gloves, and more. Let's see who can come up with the craziest inventions!

Rovio expects to launch Amazing Alex at some point in the next two months.

With the launch of the new iPad, equipped with 4G LTE cellular data, it seems likely that the next iPhone will be similarly supplied. Until then, a new startup called FreedomPop is rolling out a new iPhone case/sled that includes a Wi-Fi hotspot powered by the Clearwire 4G network.

FreedomPop, being backed by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, is offering the $99 device with 500MB of free data use each month, and should ship by the end of the summer. All Things D reports that the company is hoping to act as an alternative to throttled data services provided by native carriers.

"The timing couldn’t be better for our product," said FreedomPop VP of Product Mauricio Sastre in a statement. "Carriers are throttling data and increasing prices and users are desperate for affordable alternatives. As the mobile industry flexes its joint oligopolistic power, we want to ensure that we are keeping them honest."

The FreedomPop 4G iPhone Sleeve can be preordered from the company's website.

The Etch A Sketch has been a cultural icon for more than 50 years. These days, the iPad has replaced the red tablet as the cultural icon, but a new Kickstarter project aims to combine the two.


The Etcher combines a red iPad case complete with sketching knobs and an app that completes the Etch A Sketch experience. They have even obtained a license from Ohio Art, the company that makes the real Etch A Sketch. Of course, it erases if you shake it.

We are negotiating with a number of contract manufacturers. The most intriguing option is Ohio Art's invitation for us to use the same factory that manufactures the classic Etch A Sketch. Although it is more expensive than some the other options, we like the fact that they already know and understand Etch A Sketch. For instance, they know exactly what color red to use for the plastic--they simply use the same plastic they use in production!

The team behind the Etcher is aiming to fulfill the first orders by the end of October and they plan to publish an open source SDK for accessing the Etcher's controls from within other iOS apps.

The Etcher is available for preorder on Kickstarter for $60, with free shipping within the United States.

Following a claim earlier this week that Apple had made its first settlement offer to Proview in the ongoing dispute over the "iPad" trademark in China, The Next Web now points to a report from Sina.com [Google translation] claiming that Apple's offer amounted to 100 million yuan, equivalent to $16 million.


That marks a substantial increase over the $55,000 purchase price in the original deal between Proview's Taiwanese arm and a dummy corporation set by Apple to acquire the trademark in a number of countries. Proview later claimed that the Chinese rights to the trademark were owned by its Chinese subsidiary and that the Taiwanese arm consequently could not have sold them to Apple.

Proview has been seeking as much as $2 billion in its lawsuits against Apple over the trademark, but today's report notes that Proview has gone bankrupt with $400 million owed to its creditors, speculating that that amount would be the minimum it the company would accept from Apple. It seems extremely unlikely that Apple would increase its offer to that level, and so it remains to be seen how the talks and court case will play out.

Case-Mate has released a new iPhone case made from 100% recycled post-consumer PET bottles -- the plastic in soda and water bottles. Case-Mate says one recycled water bottle equals one iPhone case.

“As part of our greater effort to encourage more sustainable practices, we’ve introduced a line of fashionable, functional and environmentally responsible cases,” said Shashi Reddy, Case-Mate’s Chief Executive Officer. “By creating Case-Mate products using recycled materials, we’re helping millennials stay stylish and environmentally conscious.”

The $30 case comes in 6 colors, pink, orange, green, blue, black, and white. The case itself isn't anything special -- it's very similar to any number of other cases, including the Snap Case from Incase -- but it's perfect for the environmentally conscious iPhone owner.

Among several lawsuits filed by Chinese company Proview alleging that it legally owns the "iPad" trademark in China despite a deal December 2009 between Proview's Taiwanese arm and a dummy corporation set up by Apple for the purposes of acquiring the trademark, one lawsuit has been filed in the United States. In that suit, filed in California in late February, Proview alleged that Apple had engaged in deception in its efforts to acquire the trademark.

The Wall Street Journal now reports that the judge handling the case has thrown it out of court, citing an apparent agreement between Apple and Proview to adjudicate their differences in Hong Kong courts, where Apple won a decision last year.

After Proview took its legal case to the U.S., Apple argued for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that the parties had agreed to settle any legal disagreements in Hong Kong.

Judge Pierce upheld that view, writing that Proview failed to provide evidence that the selection of Hong Kong was "unreasonable or unfair," according to a copy of the order.

In response to the decision throwing out the U.S. case, Proview's lawyers claimed that the decision was not based on the merits of the case and that the company will appeal the decision.

The U.S. developments come as Apple and Proview continue their litigation in China, where the two companies are engaging in court-suggested settlement talks that have reportedly seen Apple for the first time making a settlement offer. But the two parties apparently remain far apart in their expectations for a settlement, and it is unclear whether the talks will yield any agreement.

Apple and Samsung have been suing each other for years, and Apple wants things to move along a little faster in the main U.S. case in California -- Apple wants to start the jury trial on July 30th as scheduled. Samsung believes the case is too large to go to trial, and wants to delay proceedings while the companies hash things out further.


Both Samsung and Apple have agreed to narrow their claims and the scope of the case in order to move things along, but the companies are still very far apart on numerous issues. Going further, Apple believes Samsung has been intentionally dragging its feet to avoid a judgement that may impact its very successful mobile products business. From an Apple pleading, via FOSS Patents:

While the parties have been readying the case for trial Samsung has vaulted into first place in worldwide sales of smartphones, with massive sales of its copycat products. Samsung's infringement of Apple's intellectual property has already resulted in damages that reach billions of dollars. [...] It is critical to Apple to start trial on July 30, to put an end to Samsung's continuing infringement.

The more than 50 cases between Apple and Samsung cover a number of technical patents, design patents, trade dress and more -- across 10 countries. Whether or not a jury trial starts this summer, the crush of mobile lawsuits likely won't be ending any time soon, regardless of what Apple CEO Tim Cook would prefer.

The best chance for ending the legal fight in the short term is the court-ordered mediation that Apple and Samsung's CEO's have agreed to participate in.

Photo sharing service TwitPic has released its first iPhone app, saying in an interview that the company "wanted to provide a better experience for our users."

The app, which looks something like Instagram, includes a photo editor with effects, cropping and other photo editing features. It also allows users to see their friends' photos and the most popular pictures across the service. TwitPic has licensed its photo editing tech from Aviary.


VentureBeat:

TwitPic is a name known to many a Twitterer. Launched in 2008, the service quickly became one of the primary ways Twitterers shared photos on the information network. That all changed about a year ago when Twitter went full steam ahead with its own photo-sharing service.

Many thought the news spelled the end for TwitPic — and rightfully so, it’s only natural to assume that an official offering would eclipse one developed externally. By some accounts, TwitPic has fallen behind, but that doesn’t mean it’s game over for the seven-person, Charleston, South Carolina company just yet.

TwitPic is available free on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Apple today reduced prices on all refurbished models of the original iPad and iPad 2 in its online store, knocking between $20 and $50 off of each model. The price drops include:

iPad 2

- 16 GB Wi-Fi: $319, down $30 from $349
- 32 GB Wi-Fi: $399, down $50 from $449
- 64 GB Wi-Fi: $499, down $50 from $449

- 16 GB Wi-Fi+3G: $449, down $30 from $479
- 32 GB Wi-Fi+3G: $529, down $50 from $579
- 64 GB Wi-Fi+3G: $629, down $50 from $679

Original iPad

- 16 GB Wi-Fi: $279, down $20 from $299
- 32 GB Wi-Fi: $349, down $50 from $399
- 64 GB Wi-Fi: $449, down $50 from $499

- 16 GB Wi-Fi+3G: $379, down $20 from $399
- 32 GB Wi-Fi+3G: $449, down $50 from $499
- 64 GB Wi-Fi+3G: $549, down $50 from $599

Apple has yet to begin offering refurbished models of the new third-generation iPad, but for comparison last year the company first offered refurbished iPad 2 models in late August at a $50 discount from brand-new pricing.

(Thanks, Brad!)

Evernote, the notetaking and archiving service, has acquired notebook app Penultimate for an undisclosed sum, reports The Next Web. Evernote has been on something of a buying spree -- in August of last year, Evernote bought image editing and sharing app Skitch.

More that simply bringing the app into the Evernote stable, the deal will see Penultimate (blessed with the accolade of 4th most downloaded iPad app of all time back in March this year) developed for a wider range of platforms and devices. Evernote also plans to use the acquisition of the app, developed by San Francisco-based Cocoa Box, to bring improved handwriting recognition to the Evernote service itself.

Evernote can already recognize handwritten text in scanned documents, while the company also licenses this technology to third parties via its Ritescript division. Today’s acquisition opens up the possibility of allowing you to write with your finger or a stylus directly into Evernote apps in the future. Penultimate already supports the saving of notes into your Evernote account.

Penultimate will continue on as a standalone app, with creator Ben Zotto continuing work on it at Evernote. Penultimate is the fourth most downloaded iPad app ever according to Apple. Evernote recently raised a $70 million funding round and is nearing 30 million users.

Penultimate for iPad is available on the App Store for $0.99. [Direct Link]

Facebook has updated its standalone mobile messaging app, as it tries to make messaging more modern. The Facebook Messenger app has gained read receipts, which tell senders when their messages have been read, as well as providing the senders location information. According to TechCrunch, Facebook is trying to make mobile conversations "feel more real."

Product Manager Peter Deng tells “SMS has been around for 20 years, built it was for these T9 phones. We’re focused on leveraging all the capabilities of today’s devices to create a new messaging experience.” He also says these are just the start of app updates designed to make mobile conversations feel more real, as if you had body language cues and more to go by.

Unlike iMessage, which requires that read receipts be explicitly turned on by the receiver, Facebook doesn't provide a way to disable read receipts -- but the company will let users hide their location.

The updates are going mobile first, showing up first in the standalone Facebook Messenger apps, and will eventually move out to the Facebook mobile app and the web interface on Facebook.com.

Facebook Messenger for iPhone is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Third-party warranty provider SquareTrade has announced that it is expanding its warranty coverage to include jailbroken iPhones, a procedure that voids the standard Apple warranty.

The policy change affects new and existing coverage holders, according to a report from CNET.

No word yet on if this extends to iPads and iPods, which SquareTrade also covers as part of its warranty service. The three gadgets share the same operating system.

A 2-year SquareTrade warranty for the iPhone 4S is available for $99.99, including accidental damage protection with a $50 deductible.