Jordan Golson

Apple is continuing its war on boxes. In July, Apple ended physical distribution to Apple Retail Stores and resellers of a number of software titles that it sells digitally on the Mac App Store. Now, ZDNet reports the company is discontinuing physical boxed software to educational resellers too: Apple confirmed today that, with limited exception, they will cease to ship boxed software to campus...

A new survey proffers the debatable conclusion that 41 percent of US consumers plan to buy the iPhone 5 according to mobile ad company InMobi. According to the survey, 50 percent of those planning to buy the next iPhone will do so within the first six months. It is expected that the iPhone will be made available to Sprint's 52 million customers, opening a new market to the smartphone for the...

The Oregon Trail is a classic educational travel game following a family heading west from Independence, Missouri to Oregon, during the gold rush in 1848. The official iPhone port of Oregon Trail is being offered free for a limited time by developer Gameloft as a promotion for the release of its sequel, The Oregon Trail: American Settler. Assume the role of a wagon leader in a side-view...

Grove makes a number of bamboo cases for iPhones and iPads. Now the company is introducing super-thin (.035") bamboo plates that attach to the back of unibody MacBooks of nearly any shape and size (11", 13", 15", 17"). Grove also offers laser cutouts of a wide variety of shapes that are placed directly behind the glowing Apple logo, allowing users to personalize their laptops even further....

Glider is a classic Mac game that John Calhoun originally released in 1988. Several versions of the game were released, culminating with Glider Pro, distributed by Casady & Greene, the now-defunct Mac software firm. In the game, users "fly" a paper airplane through houses filled with obstacles. Planes avoid obstacles, while using sporadically placed air vents and other items to gain lift and ...

Taking multitouch to the next level, Disney has released Appmates, small Hot Wheels-sized toys from the Pixar movie Cars, that physically interact with the multitouch screen on the iPad. The cars from Cars "drive" across the screen, with racing and other games reacting to the cars' movements. Disney calls the technology a "virtual play mat" where kids can experience the world of Radiator Springs. ...

EA, which owns the hugely popular FIFA soccer video game franchise, has brought the game to the Mac for the first time with FIFA 2012, as noted by The Loop. The game is available via digital download for $39.99 on Gametree Mac. For the first time ever, the best-selling FIFA Soccer franchise is being made available on the Mac with FIFA Soccer 12! Chosen Best Sports Game by E3 Game Critics,...

In a decision handed down by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Apple has been denied an application for a trademark on the term Multi-Touch. Apple originally applied for the trademark on January 9, 2007, the day the iPhone was introduced. A lawyer for the USPTO denied Apple's initial trademark application and the company appealed to...

The San Francisco Police Department's internal investigation into Apple's lost iPhone 5 prototype continues -- but not to get the phone back. Instead, the SFPD's internal affairs division is still looking into what role officers played in helping Apple employees search for the phone after it went missing at Cava 22, a restaurant and bar in San Francisco's Mission District. The owner of Cava...

OKITE is a Japanese alarm clock app. It's designed to help users wake up, but with a twist: it sends embarrassing messages to the user's Twitter account every time they hit snooze. Tofugu, a blog covering Japanese culture, points out that this type of public shaming is uniquely punishing in Japan: The interesting cultural thing about this app is the whole public shaming thing. In America when ...

Comcast, the United States' largest cable and internet provider, is working on a television streaming solution for iPads, to compete with Cablevision and Time Warner. The streaming product was announced earlier this year, but details haven't been released until now. The product, called AnyPlay, allows Comcast subscribers to view live television on their iPad as long as it's connected to their...

EA frequently runs sales on its iOS games, slashing the prices on its games down to $0.99. Today, the price drops a little further on two games, the iPhone and iPad versions of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2012, in a promotion with @FreeAppADay. The games normally sell for $4.99 and $6.99 for the iPhone and iPad versions respectively, but are discounted today in concert with the PGA TOUR Championship, ...

The Financial Times reports its web app, launched this past June, has more readers than the version sold on the App Store, which has since been removed. The web app has more than 700,000 readers according to Reuters. The FT chose to develop an HTML5 app rather than a native iOS app because Apple takes a 30% cut of subscription revenue made through the App Store, and refuses to hand over all...

NASA has released a collection of free sound files from its historical archives for use by space buffs as ringtones. The set includes sound clips from historic Apollo and Mercury missions, Sputnik's "beep beep beep", shuttle launch audio and more: - Apollo 13's John "Jack" Swigert commenting "Houston, we have a problem" - Crackle of the historic last launch of the space shuttle, STS-135 -...

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has been a constant critic of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, hammering the deal as bad for competition and bad for consumers. However, Hesse said yesterday that he isn't an opponent of all telecom mergers, but believes that the Department of Justice would view an alternate merger pair -- such as T-Mobile and Sprint, perhaps -- very differently. However, if such a...

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam spoke out strongly in favor of AT&T's proposed merger with T-Mobile on Wednesday. The merger has been challenged in two separate lawsuits by the Department of Justice and Sprint. McAdam, at an investor conference, said the AT&T/T-Mobile "match had to occur" because spectrum is such a valuable commodity. AT&T has proclaimed the need for increased spectrum as the...

Publications participating in Apple's Newsstand feature, coming this fall in iOS 5, will only be able to update their issues once per day, according to documents obtained by AppAdvice. The background downloading feature of Newsstand is interestingly handled by push notifications. That is, when new content is ready, the developer can, once a day, send a push notification to your device with...

Calls made using Apple's video chat program, FaceTime, are encrypted end-to-end and -- with the right setup -- are HIPAA compliant, according to a statement from the company obtained by ZDNet. This matters because any products for healthcare purchased with federal funds must be HIPAA-compliant. HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, was a large health-care bill...

Hit photography app Instagram has released version 2.0, with live effects, new filters and much higher resolution photos. Instagram now offers live previews of filters: See the world through Instagram’s stunning effects before you even snap a photo. Simply select a filter, hold the camera up to the scene and see the world through Instagram’s visual effects. We’ve re-written your...

LaCie's first Thunderbolt hard drives are finally available, more than 6 months after Apple put its first Thunderbolt-enabled Macs on sale. The Apple Online Store is offering 1TB and 2TB Little Big Disks for $399.95 and $499.95 respectively, both shipping in 1-2 weeks. 9to5Mac reports that these drives are already available at some Apple Retail Stores. In June, LaCie promised SSD drives...