Rovio teases next major Angry Birds release: Red Planet

It looks like the Mars Curiosity rover isn’t the only thing landing on Mars this year. Rovio just took the lid off of its next major Angry Birds update, Angry Birds Space: Red Planet.

Earlier this year, Rovio took its popular franchise into outer-space, and within 12 hours it was the number one paid application in the App Store. But can lightning strike again?

Obviously, it being a teaser and all, the clip doesn’t give us much insight into what new additions Red Planet will bring. But judging by the bird’s shadow we get a glimpse of in the video, we get the feeling that it’s going to be more birds-flying-at-pigs action.

Some folks feel that the Angry Birds series, which surpassed the 1 billion download mark back in May, is getting a bit long in the tooth. And Rovio has heard those pleas for change, and recently announced that a new pig-based game was in the works.

Angry Birds Space: Red Planet is expected to land on iOS sometime this fall. But until then, you can find the current version of Angry Birds Space in the App Store for $.99.



Purported iPad mini shells show no camera hole

With Apple expected to unveil the long-rumored iPad mini in a few short weeks, we anticipate component leaks for the smaller slate to start picking up.

In fact, some photos started floating around this afternoon of what appear to be rear shells belonging to the highly anticipated tablet. But are they real?

Apple.pro was first to publish these photos, which were recently discovered on the often-mentioned Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo.

The most notable detail about these images is that the shells do not have an opening for a rear camera. This directly conflicts with the claimed iPad mini cases we’ve seen pop up over the past few weeks, which have all had camera openings.

On top of that conflict, there are some other things that lead us to believe these aren’t the real deal. So we’re thinking there are two possibilities: the first, and the most likely, is that these shells are fake — made by some third party manufacturer to capitalize on the anticipation for the tablet. Or two, they could be a part of Apple’s prototyping process, as it tries to deduce the most efficient way to make the slate.

For the record, we haven’t heard any reports that the iPad mini has gone into production yet. So while we might see the tablet unveiled at the September 12 event, it may not go on sale until several weeks later. And with this in mind, it’s possible that even the folks at Apple don’t know for sure what features the final design is going to have. The company has been known to tweak product details at the last minute.

At any rate, like most part leaks, take this all with a grain of salt. We just want to know one thing, would you buy the iPad mini if it didn’t have a camera? As in, do you think it needs one?



Rumor: iPad mini display production to start this month

Alongside the new iPhone that everyone keeps talking about, Apple’s other big announcement this fall is expected to be a smaller tablet. Dubbed the “iPad mini,” by the media, the slate is believed to house a 7.85-inch screen and fall in the $200 price range.

Although there’s no actual evidence that such a product exists, it’s been confirmed by a number different news outlets. In fact, a new report is out this evening claiming that Apple is set to start production on the smaller tablet’s display sometime this month…

Citing an analyst, CNET reports:

“We expect panel production to start in August, with production ramping up to high volumes (more than a million units per month) in the fourth quarter,” said Paul Semenza, an analyst at NPD DisplaySearch, in response to an e-mail query.

Semenza said this is Display Search’s “understanding of the activity for the 7.85 [inch] panel expected to be used in the iPad Mini.” If this production schedule plays out, it could indicate a late 2012 launch, he said.”

Interestingly enough, this echoes recent reports that put the iPad mini’s release sometime in the last quarter of this year. We’ve heard it could launch as early as September 21st, along with the new iPhone, or as late as November.

But release date aside, Apple is expected to show off the tablet at a media event in the second week of September. It’s said to have a 7.85-inch, 1024×768 display, an extremely thin profile, and a price tag under $300.



Apple officially shuts down MobileMe and iWork.com

Apple has officially closed the door on its MobileMe cloud service today. The move comes after a several month-long transition period that allowed users to move their accounts to iCloud and download their remaining files.

As of this morning, the MobileMe site no longer offers users the option to transfer their accounts over to iCloud, or download their remaining data. Instead, MobileMe visitors are redirected to the existing iCloud website…

The shuttering of MobileMe marks the end of an embarrassing era for Apple, as the service was largely seen as a failure in the eyes of both consumers and Apple employees — including Steve Jobs.

Fittingly, here’s an excerpt from Adam Lashinsky’s book Inside Apple on Jobs’ well-known eruption after MobileMe received a bad review from The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg:

“In 2008, when Mossberg, along with many other critics, panned MobileMe, an email synchronization service that was supposed to mimc the functionality offered by the popular BlackBerry smartphone, Jobs erupted.

He called a meeting of the MobileMe team and berated them for having disappointed him, themselves, and one another. Worst of all, they had embarrassed Apple publicly. “You’ve tarnished Apple’s reputation,” he told them. “You should hate each other for having let each other down. Walt Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us.”

Today also marked the end of another era, iWork.com is officially closed for business. Any attempts to visit the site will get you redirected to Apple’s home page. And it does not look like users will be able to retrieve any further data.



Another iPhone-friendly smartwatch surfaces

As the Pebble showed us, consumers are very interested in iPhone-connected smartwatches. The KickStarter project smashed all previous funding records, garnering over $10 million in pledges.

As you might have guessed, the success has drawn others into the smartwatch space. And today, we’re going to take a look at the latest entry, the Strata…

The Strata is made by the folks at MetaWatch — a company founded by engineers from Fossil’s old connected-watch division. The group already has a line of semi-successful Android smartwatches on the market, and now it’s decided to turn its attention to iOS.

The Strata’s list of features is a mile long. It supports push notifications from Facebook, Twitter and Mail. And thanks to iOS 6, it also supports text messages. It can pull information from apps like Weather, Stocks, Calendar, and Phone, and can remotely control the Music app. On top of that, like the Pebble, the Strata is built on an open source platform. So developers can create iPhone apps that compliment the watch.

As you can see in the video, the Strata has a few other unique features going for it as well. In addition to being a smartwatch, it’s also a sports watch. It’s made of a durable polyurethane, and is water resistant. It also has a 3 axis accelerometer — for fitness uses, vibrating alerts, and a built-in Lost Phone alarm, that lets you know when you’ve left you’re iPhone behind.

Unfortunately, the Strata isn’t available yet. MetaWatch is currently trying to raise $100,000 via Kickstarter in order to start mass producing them. At the time of this writing, they were only about half way there. But there’s still 22 days left. If you want to help fund the project, a pledge of $159 scores you your very own Strata, in one of four colors. It’s worth mentioning, here, that it also works with Android handsets as well. MetaWatch hopes to start shipping Stratas by the fall.

What do you think of the Strata smartwatch?



Apple files another patent for wearable computing device

As we’ve said before, wearable computing is coming. We know it’s on Google’s mind — last month the company showed off its Project Glass eyewear. And we’ve seen evidence that Apple’s interested as well.

The Cupertino company filed for another wearable computing patent this week. The application covers an invention that, as you can see in the above image, has to do with a head-mounted digital display…

The New York Times points to a recently published patent application, discovered by PatentlyApple. The document is titled “Display Resolution Increase with Mechanical Actuation,” and it describes a method for increasing the pixel density of a head-mounted digital display.

Before we jump to the conclusion that Apple is readying a Project Glass competitor, there are a few things worth noting. The first is that this is not a design patent, so Apple is not required to depict what the actual device looks like. And the second, is that the application does say that this technology can be used for other types of devices, such as television sets, or computer monitors.

But if we were to combine this invention with some of the other ones we’ve seen over the years, it certainly looks like Apple is interested in making some sort of wearable computing device. Earlier this month, the company was granted a patent called “Peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays.” And a few years ago, a similar filing surfaced that described a goggle-like contraption.

The question is, what is it?