As ever, you’ll be collecting a ton of heroes and angels, customising them to match your playstyle, then sending them out to defeat the forces of evil.

There’s a bunch of PvE and PvP modes, like cross-server arena battles, co-op team dungeons, and a variety of mini games.

You can level up and train your heroes and angels to suit any playstyle and further develop them by enhancing their weapons.

You’ll then select your favourite team and choose the right formation for the occasion. Each enemy requires a different tactic so its important to change your approach depending on the battle ahead.

As an MMORPG, League of Angels – Fire Raiders is played with and against thousands of others. The handy live chat lets you speak to fellow players to organise a PvP match or make new friends.

To celebrate the launch of League of Angels – Fire Raiders, GTArcade is hosting in-game events and giveaways. Simply head on over to the official web page for more information or ‘Like’ them on Facebook to have the information brought to you.

League of Angels – Fire Raiders is out now in the App Store [download] and Google Play [download].

This article is sponsored as part of Steel Media Preferred Partners.

Snapchat a social networking app popular for sharing photos with friends that self-destruct after a few seconds has had a security breach. The servers of Snapchat were hacked that has resulted in usernames and mobile numbers of over 4.6 million users being exposed and possibly available on the internet.

According to reports, Gibson Security on August 27, 2013 had pointed out flaws in Snapchat’s “Find Friends” feature. The exploits were recently made public and as a result hackers were able to access information from Snapchat servers.

Find Friends is an optional service that asks Snapchatters to enter their phone number so that their friends can find their username. This means that if you enter your phone number into Find Friends, someone who has your phone number in his or her address book can find your username.

Snapchat has posted a blog post acknowledging the security breach and explained how the hackers got the information:

… it was possible for an attacker to use the functionality of Find Friends to upload a large number of random phone numbers and match them with Snapchat usernames. On New Years Eve, an attacker released a database of partially redacted phone numbers and usernames. No other information, including Snaps, was leaked or accessed in these attacks.

This security breach is clearly a result of Snapchat not working quick enough to patch the security holes in time. The flaws had been exposed 4 months ago however, the company failed to take action which has now resulted in 4.6 million unhappy users.

The developers are now working on an updated version of the app that will allow users to opt-out of Find Friends feature and will be “improving rate limiting and other restrictions” to avoid such attacks.

Snapchat was recently approached by Facebook for acquisition for about $3 billion however, the company refused the offer. The social networking app to share photos and short video clips is popular among teenagers. Sharing photos without leaving any tracks behind has proved to a successful strategy behind Snapchat’s user base.

Gibson Security has put up a website “GS Lookup – Snapchat” to allow users to check if their details were stolen by entering their username on the website. The site notes that only specific areas of America were included. It also suggests some steps you could take in case your details were stolen.

This is not the first time such a security breach has happened in a social networking application. Recently even Skype was targeted by hackers during the holiday season.

The new update brings new camera tools to Vine that includes, grid, focus and ghost tools to make shooting easier. The biggest change is the introduction of channels that features users’ vine updates by pre-defined category. There are 15 channels to choose from and is a great step towards allowing users to discover great new content based on the selected channel.

Vine now also features Twitter-like revine feature that allows you to share other people’s post with your followers with just one tap. This feature would allow the credit of the post to go to the original account and thus helping people identify the actual source.

Another noteworthy feature introduced in the update is “protected posts” which as the name suggests allows you to protect your updates and share it only people you approve.

On its blog Vine teases us with more upcoming updates by mentioning, “and we’ve got even more coming soon.” With Instagram video support gaining substantial popularity among users the short video clip app market has just started getting heated up. It will be interesting to see how Instagram and Vine innovate and differentiate their services to not only retain existing users but to also continue to grow its user-base.

{via Vine}

Instagram recently updated its iPhone app with video support, enabling more than 130 million users to upload and share video clips on Instagram. Video sharing comes to Instagram as Twitter’s Vine has become increasingly popular to share short clips with loops.

Facebook unveiled Instagram’s video sharing feature with enhancements such as brand new filters for video and even adding “cinematic stabilisation” to the video capture feature. The length of the entire video clip can be just 15 seconds while it can be taken in parts to cover a entire scene or event.

The videos shared by users appears in the same timeline as before with just a play icon on top right. By default auto-play option is enabled so as you scroll to a video and lift your finger the video auto-plays. However, in the settings options you can disable auto-play option.

Instagram has paid attention to a lot of detail while building the video sharing capability. If your phone is on silent the sound of the video will be on mute and the volume can be controlled by the volume rocker switch on your phone.

Initial reaction to the addition of video appeared to be quite positive on Instagram as people started recording their first video saying “bye” to vine. And many photos with the screenshot of vine being deleted from the users’ phone. If this wasn’t enough to showcase the success of the new feature, Facebook also confirmed to hit 5 million video uploads in just the first 24 hours of the launch.

Instagram has certainly gone up against Vine and has introduced a few nice enhancements which it hopes will encourage more people to share video moments. It will be interesting to see what new features will be added in the near future as Facebook continues to roll out its mobile strategy.

Adam Bell, a jailbreak developer, has now released an iOS jailbreak tweak that brings Facebook chat heads to iOS systemwide. The new jailbreak tweak is called ‘Message Box’.

Facebook recently announced Facebook Home for Android that offers deep integration of the social media giant’s services into the operating system. One of the features highlighted on Facebook Home was the ability to have “chat heads” systemwide no matter which app you were using.

Facebook chat heads on homescreen and floating on top of other apps allows users to always stay connected with their friends and continue the conversation without the need to switch apps. Facebook recently updated it’s iPhone, iPad app and brought chat heads to its native app however, the feature is limited to being just inside the Facebook app for iOS.

Message Box for iPhone / iPad allows users to float the active chat heads and access the messages on the homescreen or any other app. The jailbreak tweak is known to be stable however, a few stability issues have been reported on the web.

If you find yourself using Facebook chat a lot then this jailbreak tweak could be a must have for you. The tweak is available for free on the developers GitHub page and will also be made available on on BigBoss Cydia repo.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Facebook has hired Apple’s former Maps manager, Richard Williamson. Williamson was in charge of Apple’s iOS mapping team, and was fired in November after the new Maps application was released with many issues and faced intense criticism. By hiring Williamson, Facebook is expanding its mobile push and improving its iOS and Android application to reflect many of the changes that they have made on the web version. Facebook released version 6.0 of their iOS application earlier this week with a new Chat Heads feature and a reworked UI.

Williamson joined Facebook in the past couple of weeks to be a manager within its expanding mobile-software group, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public.

The new UI displays stories and images in a simplified and efficient manner, while the Chat Heads feature allows for users to continue their conversations with friends from anywhere in the application. Last year, Facebook also hired a number of engineers from Apple in an attempt to improve their mobile experience, which turned out to be the new Home feature for Android and part of the new version released this week.

Several members of Apple’s iPhone software group have defected to Facebook as Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg focuses on reaching customers on mobile devices. Apple alumni played a key role in designing Facebook’s recently introduced mobile product, called Home.Other former Apple employees brought in by Zuckerberg include Greg Novick, a former iPhone manager who helped develop the device’s touch interface; Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris, software designers who joined when Facebook acquired their company Push Pop Press; and software engineers Scott Goodson, Tim Omernick and Chris Tremblay.

The report also notes that Facebook also hired Loren Brichter of Twitter. Brichter designed the widely popular Tweetie app a twitter application and worked on former iOS chief Scott Forstall’s team. With all of these new hires, Facebook is gathering talent from all different parts of the mobile market and is setting itself up for developing a solid mobile experience for its users.

{Via MacRumors}

Earlier this month, Facebook introduced their new ‘Home’ feature earlier this month. Facebook Home is an interface layer on top of the existing Android operating software developed by Google. On Monday, a report from Bloomberg suggested that the social networking giant is now in talks with Apple to bring Facebook Home to iPhone. The new software would allow iOS users to interact with their Facebook profiles directly through the mobile OS, essentially having access to Facebook on most of iOS.

Facebook Home allows users to display photos on the lock screen and chat experience through something called Chat Heads which is currently developed directly over the Android software. Apple did include Facebook into Mountain Lion and iOS 6, allowing its users to share images and status updates directly from both Notification Center and the action button in Photos and Safari.

With Facebook Home, sharing and interacting with Facebook would become the focal point of Apple’s iOS. It may also compromise privacy for iOS users, which has been an issue in the past. According to Facebook’s product director, Adam Mosseri, talks of bringing the overlay are in the works but no plans have been finalized. He also notes that Facebook may retool Home to operate on iOS, likely because Apple generally controls what companies can include on their mobile OS.

{Via MacRumors}

Facebook recently unveiled a new version of its News Feed, with an emphasis on larger photos, reduced clutter and a synchronized experience across devices. This means that the design of the news feed would appear the same whether the user was browsing through it on an smartphone, tablet, or a desktop. Apple’s iOS devices will receive the update first, which Facebook noted would be released in the “coming weeks”.

Normally, with major updates to Facebook’s timeline and news feed, the company slowly rolls out features by region. Android users will be getting the new News Feed soon after iOS users. The new news feed will now be separated into four different categories, listed below, and helps to streamline and organize the current mess of links, images, music, and status updates.

All Friends — a feed that shows everything friends are sharing
Photos — a feed with nothing but photos from friends and liked pages
Music — a feed with posts about the music a user listens to
Following — a feed with the latest news from the pages a user likes and the people they follow

Although many Facebook features are normally protested during their release, this appears to be a feature that is intended for a user experience rather than for Facebook’s ad purposes. Facebook is offering users the chance to sign up for a pre-release look at the updated News Feed. The sign up for the waiting list is available at facebook.com/about/newsfeed.

{Via AppleInsider}

Apple introduced its “Find My Friends” application in late 2011 with iOS 5, allowing iOS users to track their friends in real time, and display their own location using the GPS on their device. Now it seems that Facebook has something similiar in mind.

According to Bloomberg, the social networking giant is working on a location based app similiar to “Find My Friends” which would allow users to automatically share their location with their Facebook friends. The application would run in the background so it can consistently update the location of the user and friends of the user.

The app, scheduled for release by mid-March, is designed to help users find nearby friends and would run even when the program isn’t open on a handset, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public.

The team developing Facebook’s location software is being led by Peter Deng, a product director who joined from Google in 2007, one person said. The group also includes engineers from Glancee, a location-tracking startup Facebook acquired in May, and Gowalla, a location-based social network whose assets were purchased in December 2011, the person said.

Although Apple was the first to introduce an app with this technology, it seems more practical for Facebook who would have a existing and significantly larger user base. The social networking site could also use the locations of its users to further understand a person’s likes and dislikes, which can be used for advertising purposes.

Facebook will likely give users the option to turn off their feature if they wish, as they have done with their Photo Sync feature. It is unclear how many users would feel comfortable having Facebook automatically upload their location, let alone use it for ad purposes.

{Via iMore}

With new features such as Graph Search coming to Facebook, it appears that the social networking site is looking to challenge search giant, Google. Facebook is now beginning to add new features all around, including Voice Calling to the site’s iOS Messenger app. Voice Calling through the Facebook iOS Messenger app is currently available in both the US and in Canada.

According to The Verge, the Voice Calling feature was previously limited to Canada but is now being opened up to users in the United States. The feature arrived as an update in early January, and appears to be similar to Google’s Voice feature.

What this means is that if you live in the US, you can now call other Facebook users for free over Wi-Fi or using your phone’s data connection while you’re on the go. When you call someone, a push notification appears on their screen that says “Ellis Hamburger is calling,” for example. The feature is especially critical for people with bad cell service at work or at home, and for those who want to conserve cell phone minutes. It’s also a huge step for Facebook — which with a single feature emerges as one of the largest communities of VoIP users in the world. Yes, competitors Viber, Vonage, and Skype have had the feature for some time, but all have much smaller user bases.

With Voice Calling, Facebook has an upper edge over Google, particularly because of its existing user base, and because it is a social networking site as opposed to Google’s email and search service. It is also competing with other services such as Skype. Facebook Messenger will now allow the already popular iPod touch to become a calling device for teenagers, particularly because the device is targeted towards that age-group.

Voice calling can be accessed by opening the Facebook Messenger application, opening up a chat with a friend, and click the ‘i’ button. After the page appears, a button should say “Free Call”, which will then connect the two users to a voice call. Not all Facebook users are currently able to use the feature as it is slowly rolling out across the United States. Facebook Messenger is currently available as a free app on the iOS App Store [Direct Link].

{Image via Mashable}

Starting today with Facebook Gifts, you can instantly gift your friends iTunes digital gifts and recommend albums, movies, games, apps, and more available on the iTunes Store.

Search for a specific song or album to recommend, or let your friend decide. iTunes digital gifts are available for $10, $15, $25, or $50.

According to AllThingsD, the partnership between Apple and Facebook includes Facebook into a $260 million dollar business for third-party businesses which equates to about 13% of total sales.

So that adds up to around, say, a $260 million-dollar market size for physical iTunes cards split among participating retailers, of which Facebook will now be an active participant. That pie is small compared to Facebook’s overall revenue ($3.71 billion in 2011), but another digital product with less overhead and high demand is definitely a win for Facebook’s Gifts department

This partnership will help both Facebook and Apple, which have had issues working together in the past, particularly during negotiations over Facebook being integrated into Apple’s iTunes based social network, Ping. Ping was Apple’s failed social media experiment and frayed the relationship between the two companies.

However, the two companies worked together to integrate Facebook into iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion. Now, Facebook can benefit from selling the iTunes gift cards through its service and Apple can benefit from increased sales of the gift cards, as well as more iTunes users.

{Via MacRumors}

Facebook is beginning to introduce a new feature in the Facebook application for iOS devices that automatically uploads all photos taken on the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to a private photo album on Facebook. After this, the user can then access all of their iOS images directly on Facebook and can choose which ones to share directly through their web browser as opposed to uploading individual images.

Facebook posted a page on their website, detailing the features of Photo Sync and how it works. Facebook uses background uploads directly through the Facebook application, entirely sidestepping Apple’s iOS 6 integration and special API’s. All users get a complimentary 2GB of storage to upload photos online.

This new feature allows users to manage their photos entirely online, with images being stored privately until the users chooses to share. The feature is not automatically enabled as that may cause controversy among iOS users, but gives users the option to enable it if they choose to utilize the Photo Sync service.

{Via MacRumors}

ClickStik Bluetooth Remote + Camera Stand Review

“The best camera is the one that’s with you” is attributed to Chase Jarvis and that has never been more true with the quality of camera that are now in cell phones, specifically the iPhone 4S and of course the just released iPhone 5.

There’s no disputing how good the photos are that the latest generations of iPhones produce, however there are times when you want to be in the photograph. If that’s the case you currently only have a couple of options. You could do one of those at arm length self portraits or you’ll either need to trust your iPhone to someone else to take the photo for you.

Now, though there is ClickStik, a bluetooth remote for your iPhone’s camera and a tripod for your iPhone which allows you to remotely take photographs with your iPhone while being up to 30ft away.

Pairing your device with the ClickStik takes just seconds and with only one button on the remote it’s very self explanatory whether you take the time to read the instructions or not. The tripod is a little trickier to configure.

Firstly it comes in two pieces, the stand collapses for easy travelling and is secured in place when not in use by a velcro strap that doubles as a binding should you want or need to strap the stand down if you are taking pictures under conditions that require it.

Secondly the phone is held in place in a three point holder which will hold your device both with and without a case which can then be screwed to the tripod base. Your iPhone can also be accurately positioned based on your need thanks to two hand bolts that allow you to loosen, move and tighten with ease.

The product is made of plastic and overall the build quality is pretty good. The only piece I have questions about is how strong the phone holster is as it feels that any over zealous usage could result in a break.

Using the Bluetooth adapter to take your pictures couldn’t be easier either. The remote won’t work with the stock camera app so after downloading the free ClickStik app from the App Store and launching it, taking pictures is only a click away.

There is little if no lag between pressing the remote’s button and the photograph being taken and the pictures are automatically saved to your Camera Roll to.

Obviously as the pictures are saved to your Camera Roll you can use them with any app you like but the ClickStik app does include photo editing options itself in which you can add effects, frames, stamps, text and other effects directly in the app. Now, while this is no Instagram it does provide nice options and allows you to share directly to Facebook, Twitter and email should you want to.

At $49.99 the ClickStik offers great value for money, infact with both the tripod and the Bluetooth remote you are getting to tools for the price of one and if you take a lot of photo’s with your iPhone this would be a great tool to add to your iPhone’s Camera accessories.

What we like

• Easy to setup
• Remote and stand in one pack
• Free app with added features

What to know

• May not hold up to over zealous handling

ClickStik Camera Stand Gallery

Apple has begun rolling out iOS 6 software download for supported iOS devices. The sixth major release of iOS was announced at this years WWDC keynote event, the update brings in some new features, many enhancements and new API’s for app developers.

The highlight feature of iOS 6 is Apple designed Maps app. Since the original iPhone launch in 2007  Apple had licensed Google Maps to be used in iPhone and all other iOS devices however, with growing differences between Google and Apple and the Cupertino, Calif. based company decided to build its own solution. Maps in iOS 6 brings 3D Maps to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad with a unique feature called Flyover, that offers ariel view of the supported locations.

Apple has also updated Siri for iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 3 and iPod touch 5G to support sports, restaurants and movie related searches. Siri continues to remain in beta and availability of features varies from country to country.

After Twitter was deeply integrated in iOS 5, Apple has finally added Facebook in iOS 6. This allows you to post status updates from Notification Center, share webpage, post photos and even allow single sign on for all apps for ease of use.

One of the exciting new features is Share Photo Streams which can be used if you share photos with friends and family from the Photos app. This makes sharing, commenting and liking photos extremely easy and now you can avoid sending emails with large attachments and view inline comments.

Passbook introduces a new way of managing your tickets, boarding pass, coupons and more. This app updates the loyalty cards, check in timing for your flight and even has location based alerts. We are expecting to see many retailers and airlines to start supporting Passbook fairly soon.

Other enhancements include, FaceTime over cellular for iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and iPad 3. The phone app has also been improved to support sending canned messages when declining a call, Mail now supports VIP list and easy flagging. Safari adds iCloud tabs, offline reading and full screen browsing.

iOS 6 download has been released and should be appearing via over-the-air update for iOS 5 devices. You can also update your device by connecting your device to iTunes via USB cable. It’s advisable to backup your device either using iCloud or manual iTunes sync before beginning the software update.

Have you already downloaded iOS 6 software update? What are your thoughts on the new features and changes? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Here’s the complete changelog of iOS 6:

Apple released OS X Mountain Lion late last month after announcing the software update during the company’s annual WWDC conference. On Friday, reports on the web revealed that Apple seeded the first beta of 10.8 to developers, labeled as 10.8.1, and build number 12B13. The update is available from the Mac Developer Portal and according to Apple does not have any known issues.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple requested that developers focus on testing Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange in Mail, PAC Proxies in Safari, SMB, USB, and WiFi and Audio for the Thunderbolt Display. The download is only 38.54 MB and takes up 36.4MB of space on a Mac running Mountain Lion.

According to the report and developers, Facebook integration has yet to be included in OS X Mountain Lion with this update. As Apple works out the kinks in OS X Mountain Lion with each update, the company will likely begin to work on 10.8.2 as developers begin to report new issues with the update.

Early Saturday, NYTimes reported that Apple Inc. (AAPL) was looking to invest “hundreds of millions” in microblogging company, Twitter. The report assumes that either Apple is investing or purcahsing a large stake in the company and that the two companies have been in talks in recent months over such a matter.

Apple has considered an investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars, one that could value Twitter at more than $10 billion, up from an $8.4 billion valuation last year, these people said. They declined to be named because the discussions were private.

There is no guarantee that the two companies, which are not in negotiations at the moment, will come to an agreement. But the earlier talks are a sign that they may form a stronger partnership amid intensifying competition from the likes of Google and Facebook.

However, The Wall Street Journal also came out and negated the claims made in the NYTime report, leading speculators to remain skeptical about such a deal between the two companies. Apple has been dabbling with social media in recent years, pushing for its own Ping network in iTunes, which failed to attract users. Since then, the Cupertino company has heavily incorporated Twitter into both iOS and OS X.

Apple has mixed in Twitter under the share sheets in multiple applications, including Safari on all of its devices and even Notification Center in iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion. Although Facebook will also be a part of the operating systems soon, Twitter remains tightly integrated.

It is unclear whether Apple still in talks with Twitter or if the two companies even had contact with each other. However, such a deal involving “hundreds of millions” might not justify the profitability Cupertino based company could possibly extract.

{via MacRumors}

That’s not to say that Instagram isn’t a great app, it is, but there are better apps out there and Wood Camera for iPhone is certainly one of them, do read on though and I’ll tell you why.

Lenses are one of the main things users of camera apps like to use and Wood Camera has 23 of these, they’re your standard lenses but something that is unique about them is the ability to take pictures with the filter enabled. This can save you a lot of time if you have a lot of pictures that you want to take and add lens effects too.

Applying filters is just one of many adjustments that you can make to your pictures with 17 different textures, 12 frames and my favorite features of the vignettes which enables you to highlight specific areas of the photographs.

All of these features come with the ability to apply how big the effect is via a slider which puts you in control of how your photographs looks. Applying all of these features is easy to do with all the options available along the bottom of the screen.

You can also easily take a quick full screen view of your creation via a switch at the top of the screen and from a technical perspective Wood Camera will import your iPhone 4S pictures at the full 8 mega-pixel resolution to ensure that your pictures can look as best as possible.

Of course it’s no good creating this these pieces of art if you can’t share them with the world and there are no shortage of options there either. All of the major social networks are there from Twitter and Facebook to Flickr and even Instagram as well as to your camera roll or via email.

One final nice option is the ability to have Wood Camera launch to the photo taking screen meaning that it can be a true replacement to the stock camera application.

So if you are one of those people who wasn’t happy when Instagram were brought by Facebook or are just looking for a great camera / picture editing app then Wood Camera for iPhone could be just the app for you and is available for $1.99 from Apple’s App Store.

What we like

• Use filters while taking pictures
• Multiple editing options
• Launch to camera option

What to know

• No iPad version

Apple introduced Siri with the introduction of the iPhone 4S last October. During the company’s WWDC keynote event, SVP of iOS Software Scott Forstall took the stage to announce new updates to the personal assistant, Siri, to be included in iOS 6. The software update includes improved features such as asking Siri for sports scores, history of college and professional sports teams, as well as stats, and detailed info on other professional athletes. It also provides up to the minute updates on live sports games.

With Siri on iOS 6 now being able to provide sports information, users will no longer have to go to websites to see updates and scores. Apple also improved on Siri’s abilities to access applications on the device, by allowing Siri to open applications via voice command. Upon a command, Siri does not pull up a menu or navigation menu of any sorts and instead, jumps directly into the app and begins to run it.

The Cupertino company also improved on Siri’s movie and restaurant search capabilities. With restaurant searches, Siri on iOS 6 utilizes data from Yelp, giving information on prices, and reviews and is also connected with OpenTable for quick reservations. Siri is also hooked up with Rotten Tomatoes for movies, giving users direct access to reviews of the movie and the option to watch the trailer without closing the queue. Siri can now also provide quick access to information about directors of movies, actors, actresses and a variety of other details.

Other features include Eyes Free and Facebook integration. Apple introduced Eyes Free by teaming up with a number of car companies to directly build Siri functionality into new models of their cars. The feature can be directly accessed via a button on the steering wheel and will not switch on the screen of the iPhone but will entirely operate through voice commands. Facebook integration operates similarly to Twitter on iOS 5 and allows users to post photos, web pages, and other forms of media through a pop-up menu anywhere in the OS. The company also released this feature as a public API to give developers the option to build this feature into their own apps.

Forstall introduced these updates, and following the explanation of all of the features, mentioned that Siri would now also be coming to the new iPad as well, following the public release of iOS 6 later this year. iOS 6 will be introduced later this year, during the same fall timeframe that the next generation iPhone is expected.

Apple now has over 300,000 apps in the iOS App Store and over 100,000 in the Mac App Store. It’s almost impossible to fathom just how successful both App Stores have been and how much more potential it has, to become even a bigger part of our everyday lives.

Late last week, Apple introduced a new promotion in both the Mac App Store and the iOS App Store, called Free App of the Week as well as Editor’s Choice. The Free App of the Week is self explanatory based on the name and builds on Apple’s past app giveaways via retail outlets such as Starbucks which began to offer select apps and even iBooks every week via promotional codes.

This week’s Free App of the Week is the normally priced 99 cents, Cut The Rope: Experiments app which is currently posted on the front page of the iTunes App Store. Apple has also added Editor’s Choice, with certain apps gettting a separate distinction than others in the App Store and posted to the front page alongside the Free App of the Week. These apps are likely judged on their usability, development, and popularity.

For this past week, the chosen apps were Deus X Human Revolution and Cobook in the Mac App Store. The iOS App Store’s Editor’s Choice apps were Extreme Skater and as expected, Facebook Camera. Apple continues to build on its App Store for both iOS products and the Mac and gives developers all of the spotlight.

This latest promotional addition will give app developers a chance to showcase the hard work and effort that they put into developing credible and fun apps for Apple’s App Store.

{via: TUAW — Image Credit: Arstechnica}

The latest to attempt to meet those requirements is Subway Surfers, a free universal game for your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad from Kiloo.

Subway Surfers task you to travel as far as you can along the tracks to prevent you from being caught by security who have caught you tagging one of the trains.

As you would expect there are multiple challenges for you to overcome and avoid as you aim to get as high a score as possible. Your biggest challenge is to avoid the trains that are on he track, both stationary and moving.

There are three tracks for you to navigate, swiping left and right will move you between the tracks to avoid the trains but you can also run on top of the trains should you find a ramp to get you up there or the sneaker power ups that will allow you to leap double height.

The game is all about timing as the trains leave little room for you to run or jump between them, however there is more to overcome including barriers that you can slide beneath or over and tunnels. If you do hit any of the obstacles you may get a second chance if you don’t hit it too hard, do it twice in short succession however and it will be game over.

The game does give you a helping hand to boost your high scores in the form of a variety of power-ups that include not only the previously mentioned Super Sneakers but also a Hoverboard, Headstarts, Coin Magnets and even a Jetpack! All of these can be purchased with the coins you pick up in the game but can also be brought via in-app purchase. These in-app purchases are pitched pretty well so unless you want to take massive shortcuts to big scores there’s no need to use them.

Coins can also be earned by liking the game on Facebook or tweeting about it on Twitter, however these are one off options unlike the ability to watch sponsored videos and earn 50 coins each time, although on occasion there are no videos to watch.

There are also 4 characters to play as, unlocking these is done by collecting special items that also appear in game, however after playing Subway Surfers for multiple hours I’ve only come across one of these special tokens once.

As if this wasn’t enough for you there are daily challenges and missions to complete while you play, these come in the form of traveling X distance, dodging X barriers and collecting tokens, if the game wasn’t addictive enough already these additional tasks certainly do.

Having taking multiple paragraphs without mentioning how the game looks you would think maybe that they aren’t all that special, in fact they look pretty good. Bold, solid and colorful graphics flow by fast both on the iPhone and iPads retina screens and will appeal to all players.

You can compare your scores with your friends via Facebook and GameCenter integration and although I did find that I they wouldn’t always connect as quickly as I would have hoped after playing a few games it would sync up and show me the leaderboards.

Subway Surfers {Free} takes the best of Temple Run and throws in the best of Jetpack Joyride and with the ability to challenge your friends via both Facebook and GameCenter integration this is a game that you will be playing for a long time to come.

Welcome to your new addiction!

What we like

• Easy pick up and play controls
• Bright, colorful graphics
• Built-in Missions and Leaderboards

What to know

• Minor connectivity issues with GameCenter integration

The standalone app operates similar to the iPhone camera but has the ability to post the images to Facebook much faster and easier without going through two different applications. The Facebook iOS app could now be used strictly for accessing user’s profiles and posting messages. However, all other forms of interaction can be used much more easily through smoother, and better developed applications.

By releasing Facebook Camera, the company is likely making moves to set up integration with Instagram. Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion in April and will probably slowly erase Instagram’s name and use its user base and popular features in the new Camera app. There are currently several features such as commenting and liking the photos in the stream as well a number of filters adopted from Instagram and more may appear in the near future. Facebook developed the app to simplify the task of posting images to a user’s profile, which is a very long process with the normal iOS app.

With the Facebook iOS app, the images do not post properly at all times and sometimes comments and likes do not appear correctly. An app dedicated entirely to photos, comments, and likes will ease some of the issues that users have. Facebook Camera makes perfect sense, and will likely get better once integrated with Instagram in the future. A report published on The Verge elaborated the collaboration of Instagram and Facebook with the following:

The Facebook Camera team has been working on the app for months, and Mark Zuckerberg reportedly kept his desire to purchase Instagram close to the vest, as if he almost impulse-bought it. Had the Instagram deal never occurred, Facebook Camera wouldn’t really be much of an Instagram competitor anyway, lacking any mobile-only social circles and hashtagged sharing around specific topics. “Enhancing the Facebook photos experience on mobile is long overdue,” Facebook’s Derick Mains told me. “We really had to step up our game, and we’re committed to building Instagram independently.

The Facebook Camera is now available for free in the iOS App Store.

{via MacRumors}

The company released Pages Manager, an app that allows users to manage all of their pages on Facebook within one app. The app can be used to edit and post on the pages as well as edit settings for the pages.

Facebook has posted an update for Pages Manager in the regular application in the form of a banner atop the News Feed. Facebook has also changed some small features, enlarging images, setting trending topics higher in the feed, and allowing users to scroll through trending articles. Facebook is slowly expanding each of its apps and features to make it more easily accessible on mobile devices.

The company started this new drive into mobile after the introduction of the new timeline feature in both the web version and the Facebook app. The Messenger app and Pages Manager app are only the two of the first set of applications that Facebook is likely to release to continue its push into mobile.

{via iMore}

Wake Smarter puts that fancy bedside alarm clock to shame. It has an amazing variety of choices on how you would like your alarm to behave. There are options for the usual alarm sounds, repeats, snooze-ability, and custom labels. But Wake Smarter goes WAY beyond that.

As an alarm clock it has a daytime display with gorgeous background photos or textures to choose from, and it has a much simpler nighttime display with a black background a red numerals that are easy on the eyes in the dark. The fun begins once you set an alarm. You have the ability to set the alarm to the minute and choose which days of the week it applies to. But then you get to add actions to that alarm. Actions such as having a custom message read to you, or the weather, or the news headlines, or your day’s calendar events, or your Facebook or Twitter news. Even the alarm audio allows you to choose from some unique sounds or a radio station or one of your iTunes playlists. And you can have more that one action on your alarm, so if you can’t choose you can focus on which action you want to have first. You can even control the length of the snooze feature and set it between 1-60 minutes.

There is a sleep timer too that is just as customizable. You can control the length, up to two hours, and set the audio mode to radio, playlist, or choose from about a dozen sleep sounds. The sleep timer needs to be set manually, but the audio will stop as scheduled and not interfere with any of the alarms that are set.

Another great feature of Wake Smarter is the voice control. On the main clock face screen, there is a microphone icon. When tapped, Wake Smarter understands a limited number of voice commands such as “time,” “date,” “weather,” or “Facebook.” Wake Smarter will then read out what you’ve asked for. The text-to-speech function does quite well with difficult words and it’s quite understandable. There is even some level of customization of volume, pitch, and speed for the voice to make it suit your ear.

With all these options and features, navigating has the potential to be a problem, but not so with Wake Smarter. The main clock screen has just three icons to interact with. And even the full-featured Settings screen has only four main icons to find what you’re looking for. They are clearly marked and easily understood as to what they control. You shouldn’t find yourself getting lost in complex menu structures here.

Wake Smarter is a fantastic alarm clock app. It comes with it’s own set of sounds and backgrounds. The features and options include something for everyone. But the voice control and text-to-speech feature sets this clock app apart and make it worth the $2.99 price tag.

What we like:

• Handles both falling asleep and waking up functions
• Completely customizable
• Variety of audio sources including radio, playlists, and included sounds
• Brings Siri-like functions to non-Siri-enabled devices with voice control and text-to-speech

What to know:

• Have to keep the app open

Gallery

If as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the people over at Zynga must be very flattered indeed and must be doing something right. The latest company to be inspired by the success of Zynga’s ‘…with Friends’ series is Stofle Designs with their version of Yahtzee called ‘Dice with Buddies’.

Despite the obvious influences Stofle haven’t rested on their laurels, instead they have produced a highly polished and playable game with both turn based online and local game-play for two-people.

If you have ever played Yahtzee before then you will feel perfectly at home in Dice with Buddies. The game consists of rolling 5 dice to complete different sets. From 3, 4 and 5 of a kind and groups of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6’s to straights, full house and the always useful chance option if you’ve not played Yahtzee before a basic understanding of the hands in Poker will also see you through.

The game is nicely laid out, you can see all your available combinations listed down the page and your opponents alongside them too. This allows you to easily see what combinations you have remaining and how you are doing compared to your opponents. While the layout is usable yet compact on the iPhone on the iPad with its larger real estate is even better with no scrolling required.

The updates come thick and fast with push notifications working well to inform you when it’s your turn to play and you can have multiple games running at the same time. In game notifications are all well managed meaning that you don’t have to navigate away from the game screen to play multiple games.

The game integrates with Facebook allowing you to easily play with your Facebook friends and brag about your success to your wall. There is no Twitter or GameCenter integration though which is a shame as achievements, if not leaderboards, would be a nice addition. There are in-game stats though so you can see how well you are doing including such as your highest score, average score, wins and wins percentage.

Of course no game would be where it is without in app purchases and Dice with Buddies is no different. You can buy bonus rolls from 99c to $100 (seriously!) and these will enable you to have extra rolls of your dice to get the combinations you need, however, these are certainly not required and not buying them certainly doesn’t make the game any poorer.

Dice with Buddies is a universal game which is a great feature if you have both devices, and the game comes in both paid and free versions. If you’re a fan of these types of social games and prefer numbers to letters then Dice with Buddies is a must.

• Universal App
• Simple rules
• In game stats

What to know

• No Twitter or GameCenter integration

Facebook, one of the world’s leading social media websites has moved ahead with plans to solidify their efforts in the editing and distribution of photos by purchasing photography app, Instagram.

Instagram, a popular iPhone app, recently added to Android as well was introduced in 2010 for iPhone, and has since grown to include over 30 million registered accounts.

Facebook announced on Monday that they are buying out the company for $1 billion USD and will be bringing the 13 employees over to Facebook to help the social network with other image and photography solutions.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new acquisition in one of his blog posts, noting that Facebook will be “keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.”

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

Instagram has gained lots of attention since its introduction, being named Apple’s iPhone app of the year for 2011. The company has achieved great milestones, specifically in adding new users, creating new features, and devising a simple and easy to use software to edit photos and share them. This is exactly what Facebook has been looking for, and this acquisition will likely benefit them greatly.

{via MacRumors}