“Proview has no product, no markets, no customers and no suppliers. It has nothing,” Hu Jinnan, a partner at Guangdong Shendadi law firm, which is representing Apple in the case, told the court.

“Apple has huge sales in China. Its fans line up to buy Apple products. The ban, if executed, would not only hurt Apple sales but it would also hurt China’s national interest.”

Apple’s tactics of highlighting the economic impact of the iPad and calling into question the validity of Proview’s trademark given a lack of physical product using the name are side arguments to its primary claims, which hold that Proview agreed to transfer the rights to an Apple-held company in late 2009 and has failed to uphold its part of the deal.

Proview’s iPAD, sold from 1998 until 2009 (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
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Via: MacRumors.com

Simply HDR has the potential of turning your ordinary photos into extraordinary ones. HDR photography has turned into an art form itself, and Simply HDR does a great job of creating these types of images with very little work from the user.

Most HDR apps require you to take at least two photos, each exposed differently, to be combined into a single image. Simply HDR aims to make the process, well, simpler, by performing the edits on just one photo. This is great for those times when you’re browsing through your Camera Roll and realize that a photo you took the other day might look nice with some HDR processing.

After opening the photo you’d like to edit, you can choose from five different styles: High Dynamic Range, Black and White HDR, Contrasted HDR, Shadows and Lights, and Contrasted Light — each of which has 9-15 different “filters” to choose from. Then you can adjust shadow and highlight corrections, vignette settings, grain strength, and add a tint.

Many people like the over-processed look that HDR photos can achieve, so if that’s what you’re looking for, Simply HDR does it well. Personally, I prefer subtle, natural-looking HDR processing. Lucky for me, Simply HDR has some options that fit my taste as well. The photo above is one such example.

If you pick this one up, we would love it if you shared your images with us in the iMore Photography Forum!

$ 0.99 for iPhone – Download Now

$ 1.99 for iPad – Download Now

Via: TiPb.com

Via: MacDailyNews.com

Seems that every time I review a wrestling game for iOS or Nintendo, I get nostalgic for the grapplers of my younger years. I’m not going to do that here, although WrestleFest HD certainly warrants it. It’s a wonderful recreation of the classic WWF Wrestlefest arcade game, retaining the charm of the original while slightly updating the appearance and heavily updating roster. It’s the roster that’s important, because although I mainly wanted to control Jake “The Snake” Roberts, my children were all about John Cena. Why? I don’t think they’ve seen him wrestle once. It’s because he plays Fred’s dad in those Fred movies on Nickelodeon.

So, we’ll focus on roster for a moment. WrestleFest HD starts you off with eight grapplers: the aforementioned Roberts and Cena, along with Rey Mysterio, The Rock, Randy Orton, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Undertaker. For $ 0.99, you can download the first expansion pack that includes Big Boss Man, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, CM Punk and Sheamus. THQ promises additional wrestlers and arenas every 30 days.

Each of the wrestlers come with faithful physical recreations and their signature moves, although said moves don’t quite have the impact in the game as they do in the ring. In my first match, I was able to deliver Jake “The Snake’s” DDT finisher, but the Big Boss Man kicked out after a one count (locked wrestlers are available now for computer control). Rather, you have to wear down your opponent’s energy with various moves while retaining enough of your own to get the pin.

Control is handled by a virtual joystick on the bottom left and punch/kick buttons on the bottom right. The two buttons perform different tasks depending upon your wrestler’s placement: on the turnbuckle, above a prone opponent, locked up, etc. The combination of moves can prove confusing, but I prefer this over a multiple button scheme as it allows you to focus on the action, not on the positioning of your fingers.

If all you did was wrestle in single matches, that would be enough. But THQ provides a full console-like experience in the diverse match styles. Exhibition Match is for quick bouts, while Royal Rumble, Gauntlet, and Tag Team matches will be familiar to fans. There’s even a Saturday’s Night Main Event Tournament, as well as a Road to Wrestlemania series of challenges in which you take a single WWF/WWE superstar (you can’t create your own wrestler) through various bouts in an attempt to win five different WWE titles.

I didn’t even know there were five titles. Does King of the Ring still matter?

Of course, with a game like this, multiplayer is important. As such, THQ has included Game Center support for wireless matches. I’m not sure if iPad players can take on iPhone wrestlers, but will find out soon enough.

And that actually leads me to one of my complaints about the game. It’s too bad THQ didn’t make this a universal app. The price for both versions is fair ($ 3.99 for iPad vs. $ 2.99 for iPhone and iPod touch), but it doesn’t seem to me the versions are so different that they require different downloads.

The other complaint isn’t so much an issue with the game as with the typical iOS virtual controls. Developer Seed Studio did a good job with what they have, but the lack of physical feedback somehow takes away from the fighting aspect…it doesn’t feel quite as real. Ironic? Maybe, but the act of locking up with an opponent and tossing him against the ring ropes feels kind of hollow here.

Still, WrestleFest HD is a great fighting game that otherwise lovingly captures the spirit of the original while modernizing it for today’s iOS devices. And as new wrestling packs are announced, it’ll only get better. Terry Taylor? Owen Hart? Mr. Perfect? How long until we can find out what would have happened if Steamboat beat Hogan. And how about a Georgia Championship Wrestling pack with Steve O., Steve Kiern, JYD, Tony Atlas and others. I’d be all over that.

Oh, is that the nostalgia again? Sorry…I promised I wouldn’t do that.

Appletell Rating:

Via: Appletell.com

What is it?

Blues Masters is a blues guitar tutorial that combines sheet music and instructional video for your iPad. Not only do you get over 100 blues licks in audio form, you get to see the sheet music for each lick. The app comes with video instruction for several of the licks so you can see the instructor’s hands while he tells you exactly how to play bits from some of the biggest names in blues guitar circles.

If you play guitar, no matter how old you are, there are names you will be familiar with, such as B. B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, Zakk Wylde and twelve others.

How does it work?

The home row has options to browse by artist or by a list of licks. You can also use the “Spinner” to randomly sample an artist’s style. The spinner screen lets you tap to access a page of biographical information for the artist. If you tap the artist’s name at the top of the bio page you can link to the official web page for that artist.

Tap on the Music button at the bottom and you can pull up a lick and see the sheet music version. To me, the handiest aspect of the music screen is that you can toggle between full speed, 3/4 or 1/2 of the full speed. Each lick comes with a countdown metronome (most are 12 beats as most of the licks are in 12/8 time). As you turn the playback speed down, you gain time to put your fingers in the right place and build a familiarity with the piece before attacking it at full speed. The video tutorials can be expanded to full screen, and when you tap the screen you can access the volume, rewind, fast forward and track position slider controls.

You have access to the Hot List, which is where you can build your own progression by stringing together the stored licks. You can even designate what kind of backing chords you would like to accompany the lick you build. Add six licks and start the playback to just listen or play along.

Lastly, you can go to the Shop option to purchase more video tutorials of your favorite blues guitarist.

Is it contagious?

If you play guitar and would like to try your hand at blues style playing, then Blues Masters is a great place to start. The video tutorials are well done with clear instructions and a slow play-through that lets you learn a lick at slow speed so you can hit the notes correctly. The layout is detailed and easy to use.

Overall, this is a fun app and a good learning tool, and it was a treat to review. Now you’ll have to excuse me, I have the urge to play.

Category: Music Education
Developer: G-Men Productions
Cost: $ 9.99 (also available in a free lite version)
Download: Blues Masters

Via: Appletell.com

We have extended the deadline for sandboxing your apps on the Mac App Store from March 1st to June 1st to provide you with enough time to take advantage of new sandboxing entitlements available in OS X 10.7.3 and new APIs in Xcode 4.3.

We first profiled the sandboxing requirements, which would restrict apps from initiating operations outside of their operational confines, back in November. While users could override the sandboxing with their own commands, compromised apps would be prevented from affecting a user’s entire system. But concerns over the effect of the requirement on apps requiring system-wide file access or allowing inter-app scripting have given some pause about how sandboxing should be implemented.

The issues was revisited earlier this month as the deadline approached, with several developers noting that there were still questions and concerns over how to implement sandboxing in their applications. One developer noted to MacRumors at the time that there were likely to be major issues if Apple were to enforce the requirement on March 1, given lingering bugs and other issues, and Apple has clearly taken those concerns to heart and given itself and developers an additional three months to work through the issues.

Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• iPad 3 Launching in Germany on March 23?
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• Apple's First Dutch Retail Store Reportedly Set for March 3 Opening
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• Apple Removes X11 in OS X Mountain Lion, Shifts Support to Open Source XQuartz

Via: MacRumors.com

Originally posted at Apple Talk

Via: CNET.com

Via: MacDailyNews.com

The Daily has gotten its hands on the upcoming iPad version of Microsoft Office, which its sources tell them will soon go through the Apple App Store vetting process.

The interface is reportedly similar to OneNote, which we reviewed in December, and also contains technology that’s in the Windows Phone and the upcoming Windows 8. Like similar office suites from Quickoffice and Documents to Go, users can create Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and edit them either on the iPad or online.

The Daily’s sources did not have a launch date or estimated price, but it’ll most likely be available within the next few weeks.

[Via The Next Web]

Update: Quite the soap opera drama is unfolding. Microsoft denied that Office for iPad is coming in a statement given to The New York Times, stating that The Daily published “a screenshot that is not Microsoft’s software” as well as a story which is “based on inaccurate rumors and speculation.”

Daily reporter Peter Ha then shot back that the image was not fake, and in fact came from a demonstration given by a Microsoft employee. He then supplied a screenshot of the app’s icon running on an iPad.

Office for iPad reportedly due in weeks (Update) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via: TUAW.com

Via: iPadsHouse.com