Daily iPhone App: Combo Crew does beat-em-up on a touchscreen

by Mike Schramm (May 24th 2013 at 6:30PM)

Combo Crew is an interesting experiment that just showed up this week on iOS. Beat-em-ups and fighting games are great on consoles, where you've got plenty of buttons and d-pads to pull off various moves with. But while they've appeared on iOS a few times (Capcom's Street Fighter IV has done ...

Memorial Day brings lots of great sales on iOS games

by Mike Schramm (May 24th 2013 at 6:00PM)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Here in the US, most of us are celebrating a three-day weekend that also serves as the start of summer, which means BBQs, poolside hangouts and lots and lots of time in the sun. Oh, and it means one more thing these days: iOS game sales (all prices USD)! Card game ...

Daily Update for May 24, 2013

by Steven Sande (May 24th 2013 at 5:50PM)

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires ...

Wake Alarm wants you to get out of bed ... now!

by Steven Sande (May 24th 2013 at 4:00PM)

Being the sucker that I am for well-designed user interfaces, I was immediately intrigued by the new Wake Alarm app (US$1.99 launch price) from Tiny Hearts. For just a couple of bucks, you're going to get an alarm app that is easy to set, lets you snooze with a quick slap of your iPhone and turns ...

Judge reportedly leaning towards DoJ in Apple e-book case

by Yoni Heisler (May 24th 2013 at 3:00PM)

In less than two weeks, Apple will head to trial over allegations that it colluded with five publishing houses in an effort to inflate the price of e-books. Indeed, the Justice Department last week released internal Apple emails which it claims supports the allegation that Apple was a "ringleader" ...

Ailing Mac? Try Drive Genius 3

by Ilene Hoffman (May 24th 2013 at 2:30PM)

When your Mac starts acting unreliably your first line of defense is Apple's Disk Utility, but that solves a small number of problems, such as permissions and disk verification and repair. A good second line of defense is Drive Genius 3 for Mac from Prosoft Engineering. Drive Genius offers repair ...

Backblaze Mobile for iPhone provides on-the-go access to file backups

by Steven Sande (May 24th 2013 at 2:00PM)

Backblaze, the online backup company that has made TUAW headlines with its innovative open-source 180 TB Storage Pods and drop-dead simple Mac backups, today announced a way to get mobile access to your backed-up data. Backblaze Mobile for iPhone (free) works for any current or future Backblaze ...

AT&T's GoPhone prepaid brand to fully support iPhone

by Michael Grothaus (May 24th 2013 at 1:00PM)

AT&T's prepay GoPhone service is to include an iPhone purchase option as of today. The service will also gain the addition of 4G LTE and HSPA+ support, according to MacRumors. GoPhone lets users sign up for AT&T service without joining a contract. Previously, iPhone owners could sign up ...

AltWWDC announces AltLabs dedicated lab space

by Dave Caolo (May 24th 2013 at 12:30PM)

No WWDC tickets? No matter. AltWWDC is a free, five-day event that will be held in San Francisco June 10-14, 2013. Today, the group has announced AltLabs, which will serve as dedicated lab space for attendees. Each lab will be staffed by helpful folks who are there to answer your questions or just ...

Best Buy to begin month-long iPhone sale on Sunday

by Michael Grothaus (May 24th 2013 at 12:00PM)

AllThingsD is reporting that Best Buy plans to begin a monthlong iPhone sale on Sunday. iPhone prices will drop by US$50 when bought in conjunction with a two-year contract from AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. All current models of the iPhone -- iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 -- are included. This ...

Smule users record 1 billion songs

by Steven Sande (May 24th 2013 at 11:00AM)

Smule may be only 5 years old, but the California development firm started in part by Jeff Smith and Stanford Assistant Professor Dr. Ge Wang has had an amazing impact on the world. The company shared some stats with Evolver.fm that are incredible -- Smule's apps have been downloaded over 100 ...

Apple expands iOS Maps' 3D Flyover coverage in California, including Disneyland

by Michael Grothaus (May 24th 2013 at 11:00AM)

Apple is continuing to roll out increased Maps 3D Flyover coverage. The latest update was first spotted by AppleInsider and appears to include large parts of California. Specifically, the latest update includes the cities of San Bernardino, Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Moreno Valley and ...

iPhone repair costs are soaring

by Yoni Heisler (May 24th 2013 at 9:00AM)

Marketwatch recently took a look at the rising price of iPhone 5 screen repairs, pointing out that the US$229 Apple sometimes charges to repair a broken iPhone 5 screen is often more than the cost of the device itself, with a two-year contract of course. At the root of rising iPhone repair costs ...

Apple runs new iPhone ad, dubbed "Music Every Day"

by Yoni Heisler (May 24th 2013 at 8:00AM)

Apple on Thursday evening began running a new iPhone 5 ad titled "Music Every Day." The ad shows iPhone users in a variety of environments using music on the iPhone for inspiration, fun, work and as a means to bond with friends. "Every day," the narration reads, "more people enjoy their music on ...

Reality Absorption Field: iPod's trail of tears, part 1

by Ross Rubin (May 24th 2013 at 12:00AM)

The recent celebration of iTunes tenth anniversary provided an opportunity to remember that it debuted before the iPod and was initially positioned as a way to get Macs to play well with the CD burners that had come to the iMac as well as to early MP3 players from rivals. Before and (mostly) after ...