Reuters reports that Viacom Inc, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central has settled its lawsuits with Time Warner Cable regarding cable subscribers being able to watch Viacom’s TV shows on iPads, iPhones and other mobile devices. The settlement means that Viacom shows such as Jersey Shore, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and South Park should soon be available to watch on the Time Warner Cable TV app.

“All of Viacom’s programming will now be available to Time Warner Cable subscribers for in-home viewing via Internet protocol-enabled devices such as iPads,” stated Viacom and Time Warner Cable in a joint statement.

Reuters says that although the exact terms of the settlement were not revealed, it was also noted that Time Warner Cable will continue to carry Viacom’s Country Music Television programming. Viacom spokesman Mark Jafar said that the settlement is “very good news for consumers.” So, if you’re a Time Warner Cable subscriber, get ready for a much wider selection on the TWC iOS app from now on.

Source: Viacom, Time Warner Cable reach iPad views settlement | Reuters

Indie developer AlgoCrunch has announced that its iOS word game, Word Fusion, is available to download for free for a limited time, in conjunction with Daily App Dream. Word Fusion is a fast-paced word game with vibrant graphics and intuitive controls that sees the player going on an adventure with Otto and his magical chemistry set, the beakers of which must be filled with knowledge before the experiments explode. In order to win, players have to be both fast and smart. The game helps to develop speed and accuracy skills while also being a lot of fun for players of all ages. If you’re addicted to word games, as so many of us are, you’re going to love the way in which the game gets you to spell and write words in a fun and unique way by encouraging players to find as many words as possible on the game board in order to get bonuses. Word Fusion features 22 levels, and four multiplayer modes where you can compete against family and friends: via Game Center with real-time play, Game Center with turn-based play, Bluetooth, and pass-to-play on the same device.

Click here to download the game for free: App Store - Word Fusion

Source: AlgoCrunch

PCR reports today on a survey from cloud computing firm Nasstar of 300 small and medium-sized businesses, which found that companies that let their members of staff use their own mobile and computer devices, such as iPads and iPhones, at work are a more attractive prospect to employees, and also have better staff morale than those companies that don’t allow their staff to use their own gadgets in the office. Around three quarters of bosses polled in the survey said that letting their staff use their own smartphone, laptop or tablet at work made their company look like a more “flexible and attractive” employer. Sixty-four percent of those polled said that they already allow their employees to bring their gadgets to work, with the same percentage again having written policies already in use regarding taking one’s personal gadgets to work. Furthermore, 58% of respondents said that letting their staff use their own devices in the office had resulted in greater output and better efficiencies. Tellingly, 70% of those polled said that they thought that it was inevitable that staff would ask to use their own devices at work at some point.

Source: Staff happiest using their own tech devices | The latest news from the Computer and IT Industry | PC Retail

Cult of Mac reports today on a new pilot project organized by the Veterans Affairs Department as part of its Family Caregivers program, which will see 1,000 iPads being distributed to family members of veterans who have been injured or disabled during military service post 9/11. The VA program as a whole was developed to enable disabled veterans to stay at home where they would be looked after by their loved ones. The program helps these caregivers in a variety of different ways, including paying them a monthly stipend, as well as paying for travel to care-related events, health training, counseling services, and respite care. According to Nextgov, the iPad initiative, called Clinic-in-hand, will involve caregivers receiving iPads that have been pre-loaded with various medical apps. Certain custom apps will have the facility to integrate with VA medical systems, and can also be used to send data about the veteran’s health between the department, the veteran, and the caregiver. Participants in the scheme will initially be chosen at random this summer. Cult of Mac notes that a special App Store selling the aforementioned customized apps will also be set up. According to Cult of Mac, this initiative is one of the first large-scale uses of iPads by a human services organization.

Source: New Program Will Deliver iPads To Family Caregivers Of Injured Veterans | Cult of Mac

MacRumors reports today that Apple has once again kicked off festivities for its annual London iTunes festival. Not the festival itself, you understand, that doesn’t get going until September 1 (it’s been moved from its usual spot of July this year, maybe because of the Olympics in London) but an updated version of the annual free festival app has just appeared in the App Store, and the first acts to appear have already been announced, and pretty spectacular most of them are too, with the whole shindig kicking off with Usher on September 1, Emeli Sande on September 5, Jack White on September 8, Norah Jones on September 10 and One Direction on September 20. All gigs take place at London’s legendary Roundhouse in London, and all are free to enter, but you have to be lucky enough to win a ticket by applying either in-app or on one of the websites below. We certainly are lucky to have this amazing festival in the UK, and to get to see incredible acts for free in a great venue, but you don’t have to be in the UK to enter, as fans from Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands can also take part in the lottery. The app will also stream live videos of the shows, as will iTunes. It’s always worth entering, you have a great chance of being lucky, I remember one year I got to see N.E.R.D and Jay Sean!

iTunes Festival, let’s get it started! Click here to download the free app: App Store - iTunes Festival London 2012

Source: Apple's Annual iTunes Festival in London Moves to September - Mac Rumors
iTunes Festival 2012
iTunes Festival 2012

The big news of the day is now officially out. Facebook's IPO was launched and priced out at $38, with a valuation set at $104 billion. Mark Zuckerberg himself rang the NASDAQ bell to start the trading day off with the big announcement. But, of course, he and the rest of his team at Facebook couldn't just do it the old fashioned way. They are code-junkies and hackers, after-all. So, they did things a little differently. One was pretty simple. Without a word, he rang the bell remotely from his company's headquarters (normally new IPO's will go to New York to ring it in person, although not always, so he was not the first to do this). Second, and this it where things get more interesting... beforehand, his team of engineers at the HQ found a way to hack the remote NASDAQ button, so that at the exact moment he hit the button to ring the bell, it would post the story to his Facebook timeline to let his friends and subscribers know. Here's a quote from the TechCrunch article with a few details,

During lunch, some us started talking about how cool it would be if the second Mark rang the bell, a story would post to his timeline to let his friends and subscribers know.

I was so excited about this idea that when I got back to my desk, I posted on Facebook: “We should totally hack the button so it pushes an open graph action, “Mark Rang the NASDAQ bell”.

The first person to comment? Zuck: “It would be epic if you pulled that off.”

I got to work that night.

The hack was successful. The IPO went off without a hitch, breaking several records. And the rest, as they say, is history...

Here's the full official press release for the IPO:

Facebook Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering

MENLO PARK, Calif., May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 421,233,615 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $38 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on May 18, 2012, under the symbol “FB.” Facebook is offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling

... [Read More]

PopCap Games today announced the release of Bejeweled HD for iPad. The premium, native adaptation of PopCap’s best-selling franchise features gorgeous HD graphics especially designed for the new iPad’s Retina Display, as well as four game modes (Classic, Butterflies, Diamond Mine and Zen), Game Center support, and other features optimized for iPad.

“The iPad has become a de facto standard for tablet gaming and is an ideal platform for the Bejeweled franchise,” noted Giordano Bruno Contestabile, Bejeweled franchise business director at PopCap Games. “This native adaptation is one of our best yet, and will enthrall players with fantastic HD graphics and optimized gameplay. As Bejeweled further evolves, we’ll continue to bring exciting new iterations, updates and content to millions of new and existing players.”

Here are some bullet points of the game’s main features, courtesy of PopCap:

◊ Stunning HD graphics; full retina display support for the new iPad
◊ Four great game modes: Play the ever-popular Butterflies and Diamond Mine, along with Classic and Zen for hours of challenge and fun
◊ Game Center Support: Compete against your friends and climb the leaderboards
◊ Create electrifying special gems like Flame gems, Star gems, Hypercubes, and Supernova gems
◊ Earn badges and Game Center achievements to show off your best skills

Click here to download the game for $3.99: Bejeweled HD for iPad on the iTunes App Store

Source: PopCap Games

MacRumors reports that Chillingo’s popular iOS game Feed Me Oil is available for free on the App Store just for today. Both the iPhone and iPad versions are free, with the former usually costing $0.99 and the latter costing $1.99. The game has previously topped the App Store charts in the US, UK, Russia, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Australia. The gameplay takes the player to a weird and wonderful world where the land is literally alive, and starving. It’s up to the player to get the oil from the broken pipes to the mouths of strange, beautifully rendered creatures, using all manner of creative tools, as well as their intuition, to solve the carefully designed puzzles. The game was created by HolyWaterGames, and has had several updates since its initial release back in June 2011.

“HolyWaterGames is an exceptionally talented developer with strong design, art, sound engineering and coding expertise," explains Joe Wee, Co-General Manager, Chillingo. "They created an amazing puzzle game with excellent physics mechanics; we knew from the very start that Feed Me Oil was going to be something very special,”

Click here to download the iPhone version: App Store - Feed Me Oil

Click here to download the HD iPad version: Feed Me Oil HD for iPad on the iTunes App Store

Source: Physics Puzzler 'Feed Me Oil' Free for Today Only - Mac Rumors

The Apple TV rumors had been sitting on the reserve bench lately, but this week a second hand account coming from the Business Insider, managed to rekindle interest into this mythical device. So according to the story, Apple is said to be working on an iPad interface that will remotely control the upcoming Apple HDTV.

Even if the information so far is pretty scattered and unconvincing this is practically the first news we have seen so far regarding preparations vis-à-vis the HDTV user interface.

The source also describes how this iPad interface is expected to work. According to the insider it is supposed to function as a channel surfing tool. The tablet will be running dedicated remote control apps that will be connected with the Apple TV in order to offer the viewer the best experience possible.

The iPad will be in charge of running special apps and by means of graphical user interface (GUI) users will be able to scan the content they are interested in. The GUI will be linked to the TiVo app and set-box as well.

The source also claims that some channels will have their own specific apps that will show users other relevant information apart from just streaming the video content. Let’s say you are watching Fox and at the same time the app provides information about different upcoming video or gaming releases. It doesn’t sound bad, but we can’t help but wonder if a system like this wouldn’t become quite confusing to users. Launching a different app every time you want to change the program might prove annoying to some.

Share your thoughts.

By Radu

Remote control iPad interface reportedly outlined for rumored Apple HDTV

Yet more news about Apple’s rumoured iPad Mini project today, with AppleInsider writing about a new report on Taiwan’s The Liberty Times, which says that both LG Display and AU Optronics have passed certification tests to make LCD panels for the iPad Mini, and are now preparing shipments of the panels for Apple. The Liberty Times also said that Radiant will be supplying the backlight module and Nissha Printing will be making the thin-film sensor for TPK and Chimei Innolux. This follows on from previous rumours saying that the iPad Mini would be using G/F2 thin-film touch technology from Nissha. The report also says that the iPad Mini will be released at the end of Q3 or the start of Q4 this year, with a shipment target for this year of six million units. As more and more stories start to emerge from credible sources about the possibility of an iPad Mini, the likes of Barclays analyst Ben A. Reitzes are saying that his research leads him to believe that Apple will indeed be releasing an iPad Mini this fall.

Source: Rumor: LG Display, AU Optronics have passed certification for 'iPad mini' LCD panels

Urbanspoon, the leading mobile restaurant discovery app has today released its first annual Top High-End Restaurant List, recognizing the most highly acclaimed restaurants in the United States. The most comprehensive list of its kind, it highlights 250 of the top restaurants in the nation, the result of analyzing more than 600,000 restaurants, millions of reviews from professional food critics, the Urbanspoon community and diners.

“We would like to congratulate this list of restaurants who stand out among all the high-end restaurants in the US," said Kara Nortman, SVP of Consumer Businesses, CityGrid Media. "Based on restaurants that received the most favorable reviews from Urbanspoon's critic, blogger and diner communities, the list truly highlights a myriad of establishments from the expected like the Bay Area's French Laundry, to the unexpected places like Restaurant Iris in Memphis."
From PR Newswire (share this quote)

The Urbanspoon Top High-End Restaurant List covers 36 states and 64 metropolitan areas, including New York, San Francisco and Chicago, as well as smaller locations such as Destin, Florida. You can view the complete list here: Urbanspoon Blog | America's Most Popular High-End Restaurants, and the newly re-launched Urbanspoon app for iPhone can be downloaded for free here: App Store - Urbanspoon

Source: Urbanspoon

For those of you who are nostalgic for older firmware, you will be pleased to hear that the iPhone Dev-Team has just released a solution that allows newer iOS devices like the iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and the new iPad to be downgraded to lower earlier firmware versions.

The fix is called RedSn0w 0.9.11b1 and allows for those who unwillingly or accidentally updated their devices to iOS 5.1 or iOS 5.1.1 to go back to their preferred versions of choice iOS 5.0.1. for an untethered Jailbreak. But users willing to get started will have to meet a set of requirements before they can proceed to the next level. You will have to make sure you have your SHSH blobs from iOS 5.0.1 saved. You will also not be relying on an unlock that will require a certain baseband version.

Provided you meet these two criteria you can move on and get your device downgraded. The first step is to download RedSn0w 0.9.11b1 for Mac OS X. After you make sure all the downloaded files are available, your A5 iOS device will go in DFU mode. Then just run RedSn0w. A menu will pop up. Choose Extras. Then click on the Even More option. Finally hit the Restore menu button. You will have to select your iOS 5.0.1. firmware files and match it to the iOS 5.1.1. firmware files by clicking the IPSW button.

All that’s left now is the Blobs section. For users who have saved their SHSH blobs in the past with the help Cydia, nothing more remains to be done... just click the Remote button. If you have not saved your blobs, then click on the Local button and find them on your computer. After you have done so, only 10 seconds stand between you and your downgraded device. This is a beautiful and simple release by the Dev-Team.

By Radu

Source: Redsn0w update lets iPad 2, new iPad, iPhone 4S downgrade to older firmware | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog