Jordan Golson

JJ Abrams has been involved in the creation of some of the most successful movies and TV shows of recent years, including directing the reboot of Star Trek, co-creating the television show Lost, and producing the just-released Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. His company, Bad Robot Productions, typically focuses on his motion picture properties -- however, the company has now branched out ...

As David Pogue points out, O'Reilly Press is offering a number of its Missing Manual books for 50% off through January 3rd, with no DRM and lifetime access downloads and updates. Those looking for last minute Christmas gifts for slightly less tech-savvy relatives may want to check it out. Among the titles on sale: - iPhone: The Missing Manual by David Pogue for $9.99 - iPod: The Missing Manual...

When image editing and sharing app Skitch was acquired by Evernote earlier this year, we were told iPhone and iPad versions were on the way -- and now Skitch for iPad has arrived. Skitch is the amazingly fun and surprisingly powerful way to move your ideas and projects forward using fewer words. With Skitch, annotate and draw on just about anything that you see, whether it’s a new or existing...

Rockstar is offering their three iOS apps for up to 40 percent off as a holiday sale, including the just-released Grand Theft Auto III. Today, we are pleased to announce a special holiday sale for Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and Beaterator at the iTunes store. The sale starts today, December 22, and will end on December 29. - GTA III:...

When the original iPhone was released, it had no third-party apps, no voice control, no games, and no to-do list -- among many other things. But it was still revolutionary, completely different than what came before, and over time many of its shortcomings were addressed by hardware and software updates. The same is true of Siri now. It has very little in the way of third-party integration, and ...

Google has updated its iOS Google Voice app with a number of new features, including full support for Sprint integration. Google has a partnership with Sprint that allows customers to use Google Voice natively on their Sprint phone and have access to the full set of Voice features. What's New in Version 1.4.0.2372 - Multi-recipient texting, with contact autocomplete. - Sprint integration...

Graphisoft claims it has the world's first Steve Jobs statue in front of its Budapest headquarters, crafted in bronze by Hungarian sculptor Erno Toth. From Graphisoft's press release introducing the statue: The relationship between GRAPHISOFT and Apple can be traced to the 1980’s, when Jobs came across the first version of GRAPHISOFT’s ArchiCAD software at the 1984 CeBIT in Germany....

Last week, the BBC introduced its iPlayer for iPhone app for UK television license payers. The app allows domestic viewers to view live BBC TV and radio and watch catch-up TV over Wi-Fi and 3G. It's a major app in the UK and was downloaded 1.1 million times in its first week of availability, with 500,000 of those downloads to users who had never downloaded the iPlayer app previously. The BBC...

iTether is an iPhone app that allows users to share their iPhone's internet connection with their Mac or PC computer over USB. However, the application was available for only a few hours on the App Store before Apple removed it over "carrier concerns". There are two parts of the iTether app -- an iOS app and a computer-side application. Though the iOS app isn't available for sale anymore,...

The U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled in favor (PDF) of Apple in a patent dispute with Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC. The commission found that a number of HTC devices violate two claims related to an Apple patent. As a result of the decision, an actual ban on the importation of some HTC devices goes into effect in April of 2012. Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents on the decision: ...

A firefighter in the Pennsylvanian town of East Brandywine experienced a close call with his iPhone 4 earlier this month, according to a post on the East Brandywine Fire Company's website. While charging the phone using the Apple provided computer connection, the phone spontaneously caught fire. After the phone fell to the floor igniting the carpet, the phone was thrown out a nearby...

A 4th generation iPod Shuffle, apparently signed by Steve Jobs himself, is for sale on eBay. The signature on the iPod is similar to Jobs's signature, but the item doesn't include any guarantee or certificate of authenticity, though the seller does offer this story for how the signature was obtained: As part of a "innovators of tomorrow" program, myself and a 3 of my colleagues were invited to ...

Yamaha used some technological trickery to enable Siri to play a concerto on a Yamaha Disklavier Grand Piano. By converting a MIDI songfile into an audio file that the iPhone can play and connecting the audio output of an Airport Express to the analog input of a MIDI-enabled Disklavier piano, the iPhone can "play" the MIDI file via AirPlay and control the multi-thousand dollar piano. As expl...

Specialized search engine Wolfram Alpha, one of Apple's launch partners for Siri, has partnered with Best Buy to deliver shopping results. As a result, iPhone 4S users can now search a number of products and categories from Best Buy's catalog, and get prices and descriptions returned. From Wolfram Alpha's blog post announcing the feature: Just in time for the holidays, we’re introducing a ...

Sonic CD and Marathon 2: Durandal have made their way to the iPhone and the iPad, more than 15 years after their original release. Sonic CD was originally released in 1993 as a game for the Sega CD, Sega's CD-ROM add-on for the Genesis console. Unfortunately, the Sega CD was a complete flop, and, according to our sister-site TouchArcade, never got the attention it deserved. I'd still say...

It appears that a bug in iMessage allows texts to be sent to a stolen iPhone, even after a remote wipe and disabling the SIM card, reports Ars Technica. iMessage, introduced in iOS 5, is similar to RIM's BlackBerry messaging service. It sends text, picture, and video messages over Apple's servers instead of via the carrier's SMS service. This can lower the user's text messaging charges and...

In the wake of reports that Apple is considering the purchase of Israeli firm Anobit, Israeli financial newspaper Globes reports that Apple plans to set up its first research and development center outside of its Cupertino headquarters. Sources inform "Globes" that Apple Inc. has decided to open a development center in Israel focusing on semiconductors. The decision was taken even before the...

TeleNav has launched a browser-based turn-by-turn navigation service for mobile phones written in HTML5. The service will be free for consumers and developers of mobile websites and apps will be able to integrate turn-by-turn directions into their products. Similar to TeleNav's award-winning GPS navigation application, the HTML5 navigation service will include full-color moving maps, audio...

SiriusXM radio has updated its iOS app to include DVR-like pause and rewind capabilities, the ability to restart a show in-progress from the beginning, and the ability to go back in time up to 5 hours on a particular channel to catch-up on missed content. SiriusXM Internet Radio is free for the iPhone and iPad, but requires a $12.95/month standalone subscription or a $3/month fee for existing...

Danish company Scanomat has introduced the TopBrewer, an iPhone-controlled coffee faucet. The tap is part of an advanced brewing system that can be built into any tabletop. The company has patented the world's smallest milk foamer which heats milk on-demand and foams it to the correct texture. The brewer cleans itself after each cup, and can dispense drinking water, cold or hot milk, steam, or ...