Reviews Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Consumer Reports gives a thumbs up to the iPhone 4S

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Nov 8th, 2011)

In a reversal of its panning of both the AT&T and Verizon models of the iPhone 4, Consumer Reports says it can recommend the iPhone 4S to consumers, saying that it doesn't suffer from either the reception problems that its predecessor did, nor from the reported battery woes that Apple is ...

Sega kicks off the Halloween app sales

by Mike Schramm (Oct 24th, 2011)

We've seen quite a few holidays this year get bookended by app sales, and it appears that Halloween will be no different. Sega has kicked off the spooky season by putting all of its iOS apps on sale, dropping prices down to as low as 99 cents. Apps on sale (starting tomorrow, and going ...

10 days with iPhone 4S: a personal review

by Erica Sadun (Oct 24th, 2011)

Under normal circumstances, I would not be considered a target customer for the iPhone 4S. I bought the iPhone 4 on launch day. I was not up for renewal until late November. Because of work commitments (look for the upcoming "Taking Your iPhone 4S to the Max" co-written with fellow TUAW ...

TUAW's Daily iPad App: Battleship for iPad

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 14th, 2011)

Electronic Arts recently released an official version of Battleship for the iPad. EA kept the gameplay of the classic board game, but updated the graphics for the larger screen of the iPad. The iPad game has the look and feel of the electronic version of the game with several modes including ...

TUAW's Daily iPad App - Warplanes: A History of Aerial Combat

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 13th, 2011)

Gameloft recently released a new iPad book-app, Warplanes: A History of Aerial Combat (US$6.99). This app is follow-up to Gameloft's earlier book-app, War in the Pacific. This latest offering includes detailed information on 43 historic war planes including popular bombers like the B-52, ...

TUAW's Daily iPad App: PDF Converter

by Steven Sande (Jul 12th, 2011)

It's not often that we can make a product announcement and also have it be a Daily App, but that's the case with Readdle's newest iPad app, PDF Converter (US$6.99). PDF Converter adds a tremendous amount of power to your iPad; it makes it possible to save almost any content on your iPad as a ...

Element Case Formula 4 covers your iPhone 4 in style

by Samuel Gibbs (Jul 8th, 2011)

Element Case, the folks that brought you the Vapor aluminium iPhone 4 bumper, have released a polycarbonate case built around a similar design aesthetic. The Formula 4 features the same shaped iPhone 4 edge-banding that the gorgeous Vapor uses and adds a protective back-plate that's covered ...

Blu-ray playback comes to OS X, but not from Apple

by Mel Martin (Jul 6th, 2011)

We all know Steve Jobs does not want Blu-ray to be on Macs. He famously referred to the licensing rules for Sony's format as a "bag of hurt." Nevertheless, people do want to play movies on their Macs, and not be ripping DVDs or going to the iTunes store. With Blu-ray disks getting more popular, ...

Hard Candy Street Skin for iPad 2 covers all corners

by Samuel Gibbs (Jul 4th, 2011)

Hard Candy cases, known for their sex-sells approach (just take a look at their site), has brought their Street Skin line to the iPad 2. Designed as thin yet rugged cases for Apple's iDevices, the Street Skin cases are made of TPU and feature a tire-like design with a raised grip pattern across ...

Relaxation Portal for iOS can transport you to another world for free

by Mel Martin (Jul 1st, 2011)

I've spent the last couple of days testing and exploring Relaxation Portal, an iOS app from SRS Labs that provides stunning audio recreations of several environments in places like Namibia, Crete, an Amazon Rainforest and Martha's Vineyard. For the full effect, you must listen on headphones. In ...

Mophie juice pack air iPhone battery pack now even snappier

by Steven Sande (Jun 30th, 2011)

Mophie recently announced the availability of a new design for their highly popular and useful juice pack air battery extender for iPhone 4. The Mophie juice pack air snap case (US$79.95) is available at Apple Stores and other retailers, and while it still offers virtually double the battery ...

Blotter for Mac puts iCal on your desktop

by Steven Sande (Jun 30th, 2011)

Back when I was in corporate America, an annual tradition was to order new calendars for the desk. I preferred the "day at a glance" type, but many of my fellow wage slaves liked these large desk blotter calendars that displayed a full month. Now there's a Mac app from WireLoad, Blotter ...

Quotebook for iPhone is a fun, handy app

by Dave Caolo (Jun 29th, 2011)

Quotebook for iPhone (US$1.99) is a fun and clever way to create a portable library of memorable, inspiring or otherwise notable quotes. That list can be categorized, sorted and shared with others. Quotebook is simple and does its job. While commercial software gets more capable and robust, there ...

iCade, the almost-ultimate gaming accessory for your iPad (updated)

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Jun 24th, 2011)

I've been playtesting the iCade for a few weeks now to see how it holds up under "real world" use. The iCade began as a joke product on ThinkGeek's website but was then produced by ION Audio as a real, working arcade cabinet for the iPad. Using Bluetooth to connect to your iPad, the iCade ...

Roadshow from Fetch Softworks downloads videos to iPad for offline viewing

by Steven Sande (Jun 22nd, 2011)

Longtime Mac users are very familiar with Fetch Softworks. The company has been around since 1989, and is named after the classic Mac FTP client -- Fetch. Now Fetch Softworks has branched out with a new addition to the family named Roadshow. Roadshow (free download, $4.99 in-app purchase to ...