Author: Kelly Hodgkins

Here are some of the best free apps, app updates and new apps that have landed in the App Store recently. All app prices are USD and subject to change. Some deals may expire quickly, so grab them while you can.

Apps Now Free

SharpScan Pro + OCR…

Microsoft today started selling its Office 365 Personal subscription, a less expensive version of Office 365 that targets individual users. The cloud-based subscription service provides access to online versions of Microsoft’s Office productivity suite, online storage in OneDrive and a block of Skype calling minutes.

The new personal option allows subscribers to connect one PC or Mac desktop computer and one tablet, including the iPad, to the online service. It will cost $69 per year or $6.99 per month. Customers who require more connections can sign up for the Office 365 Home plan, which is geared towards families with support for up to five desktops and five tablets.

The new Office 365 Personal plan is available for purchase at Office365.com. It also is available at Microsoft Stores and through Microsoft’s online and retail partners. Microsoft also offers Office 365 business plans, which are priced by the number of users and are designed for real-time, online collaboration using the Office 365 suite.

Recent reports suggest Amazon may be preparing a smartphone with 3D capabilities to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy handsets. New details from BGR and TechCrunch shed some light on this 3D feature and possibly provide us with our first look at the phone, which is partially hidden inside a case.

According to BGR, multiple sources claim the phone will include a 4.7-inch display with 720p resolution, which is lower than the 1080p HD display in Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S5 and less than the projected 1334×750 display that Apple may use in the iPhone 6. Under the hood, the Amazon phone is predicted to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 2GB of RAM.

The biggest differentiator between Amazon’s smartphone and those from Apple and Samsung is a 3D feature, which allegedly uses up to 4 cameras and additional sensors embedded in the phone. Amazon may use the 3D technology to showcase its own products, allowing users to explore a three-dimensional product images, claims BGR.

Another smart use for the phone’s 3D effects is across Amazon’s various stores, such as its book store, music store and the main Amazon digital market. By shifting the position of the phone, users are able to see three-dimensional product images at different angles to reveal surfaces that cannot be seen in 2D photos.

The 3D capability of the phone may also provide a parallax effect, similar to that in iOS 7. Amazon’s implementation in its FireOS may be greatly exaggerated as compared to Apple’s version and supposedly is limited to only a few key gestures, reports TechCrunch.

According to our source, the flagship device, Duke, is powered by a heavily modified version of Android. It’s FireOS with extreme 3D parallax effects, similar to those found on iOS but greatly exaggerated. The screen itself is not 3D, but rather simulates a 3D effect.

By way of four corner-mounted, front-facing cameras, a user can tilt the smartphone left or right to browse and access hidden side panels. We’re told that the 3D feature is very limited out of the box. At launch, there will be just a couple of added gestures built into the operating system that utilize this system.

Rumors point to a possible announcement in the coming months with a target launch date of late September, but this may be subject to change. Amazon allegedly is showcasing the device to key developers as it tries to build third-party support for the platform before it is launched.

In line with earlier reports, Pioneer today announced it is bringing Apple’s CarPlay technology to its existing product line. CarPlay will be added to the company’s five 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receivers via a firmware update that will be made available in early summer 2014.

“Pioneer’s years of expertise integrating smartphone connectivity into the automotive environment has provided us the opportunity to be among the first to offer CarPlay to drivers,” said Ted Cardenas, vice president of marketing for the Car Electronics Division of Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “By providing an aftermarket option, Pioneer’s 2014 in-dash multimedia systems give many iPhone owners the ability to add CarPlay to their current vehicles.”

Pioneer in-dash multimedia systems compatible with Apple’s CarPlay include the $1400 AVIC-8000NEX, the $1200 AVIC-7000NEX, the $900 AVIC-6000NEX, the $750 AVIC-5000NEX and the $700 AVH-4000NEX. These receivers are available from authorized Pioneer dealers such as Best Buy, Crutchfield and Car Toys.

Introduced earlier this year, CarPlay is an iOS-driven system that allows an iPhone to tie into the in-dash display of a car, providing Siri-controlled voice access to features like Maps, phone, messages and music. The technology initially debuted as a factory-installed feature in new 2014 models from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo.

CarPlay can be added to existing systems as the technology works in conjunction with BlackBerry’s QNX Car Platform, which powers many existing in-car infotainment systems. Beside Pioneer, car audio manufacturer Alpine may begin selling its own aftermarket in-dash entertainment systems that will support Apple’s CarPlay feature. Alpine’s CarPlay receivers are expected to debut this fall in Europe and the U.S. with a base price of $500 to $700.

Samsung is the leader in mobile advertising, significantly outspending all its rivals on commercials that target the U.S. market. Though still number one, the Korean company’s advertising dollar lead is shrinking, reports the Wall Street Journal, with Samsung’s rivals increasing their advertising spending by 33 percent year over year in 2013.

According to ad research company Kantar Media, the top seven U.S. smartphone makers spent over $1.3 billion in 2013 on advertisements for print, TV online, radio and outdoor venues. Apple spent $351 million last year, with the bulk of that money ($339 million) going toward TV ads.

While Apple increased its spending 5 percent year over year on mobile phone ads, Samsung scaled back its advertising efforts, reducing its U.S. advertising by 10 percent in 2013 to $363 million. The gap between Samsung and Apple now has narrowed to $12 million, which is less than the $68 million gap in 2012.

Samsung is known for its aggressive Galaxy marketing campaigns, which routinely target rival devices. Samsung’s clever tagline “The next big thing” reportedly infuriated Apple executives and lead to a tense email exchange between Apple’s head of marketing Phil Schiller and the company’s longtime ad agency, TBWA/Media Arts Lab.

Despite outspending Apple in advertising dollars, Samsung trails Apple in U.S. smartphone subscribers, with 26.7 percent market share as compared to Apple’s 41.6 percent. Apple’s market share continues to grow, but the overall rate of adoption is slowing as the smartphone market approaches saturation.

Benoit Dupin, the Vice President of Amazon A9′s Search Technology group, has left his position at the online retailer to join Apple, reports 9to5Mac. Dupin’s profile recently was removed from Amazon’s A9 website, and Dupin’s LinkedIn profile now reflects his new position as Director at Apple.

At Amazon, Dupin worked in the A9 group, which powers product search and advertising throughout Amazon’s international web stores. Dupin has experience working with search infrastructure, search experience and search relevance at Amazon. He also held positions at HP, Easyplanet and Canon Research France.

Dupin is joining Apple as a possible replacement for the exiting Cathy Edwards of Chomp, who joined Apple when the Cupertino company acquired the smartphone app search engine. Edwards served as the Director of Evaluation and Quality for Apple Maps, iTunes Store and App Store. Dupin will assume a similar role as Edwards, bringing his search expertise to those product areas within Apple.

Dupin’s exact role at Apple in not known, but his search expertise could be utilized in Apple’s Maps as well as its iTunes and App Store, all of which have been criticized for their undependable search results. The company regularly tweaks its search algorithm within its App Store, recently adding a new search suggestion feature for iOS owners. Apple also is rumored to be working on improving the Maps experience in iOS 8 with new transit Directions and improved points of interest data.

Here are some of the best free apps, app updates and new apps that have landed in the App Store recently. All app prices are USD and subject to change. Some deals may expire quickly, so grab them while you can.

Apps Now Free

orphinio [iPhone; Now…

It’s time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring exclusive TUAW Deals, a handy list from Dealnews and our own handpicked iOS and OS X selections. Don’t forget to check out our “Today in the App Store” post that singles…

Apple updated the shipping estimates for its new Mac Pro desktop, with the US store now providing a shipping target of 5 to 6 weeks for new orders with either stock or custom configurations. International stores still report April as an estimated ship …

Today is April Fools’ Day, which means readers should be wary of what they read online as much of it will be a gross hyperbole created in the name of fun. Today also marks Apple’s 38th anniversary, with the company having been founded on this day in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Among the popular April Fools’ Day jokes making the rounds today are the following:

Apple Acquires iFixit

Based on the number of tips we’ve received, iFixit wins the award for the most believable Apple-related April Fools’ prank for 2014. The popular device repair company changed its entire website to announce that it is being acquired by Apple.

It’s finally here. We’re thrilled to announce that we are joining forces with Apple starting this summer. It has been an exciting adventure for all of us at iFixit, and we can’t thank our dedicated community enough. Let’s start our next chapter together.

BookBook for iMac

Twelve South, which offers a popular line of book-themed iPhone, iPad, and Mac notebook cases, has introduced its largest version yet: BookBook for iMac.

SwiftKey “Flow Hard” for Physical Keyboards

Popular alternative keyboard SwiftKey, which recently began experimenting on iOS, announced “Flow Hard”, a version of its gesture-input technology for physical desktop/laptop keyboards. The new Flow Hard is guaranteed to increase your typing speed and your overall productivity.

Nest and Virgin America Team Up on Personalized Airline Seat Climate Control

The now Google-owned Nest partnered with Virgin America to bring Total Temperature Control to airlines, allowing users to customize their own seat environment.

SelfieBot by Orbotix

Orbotix today unveiled the SelfieBot, a camera-equipped drone that hovers around you, capturing the best selfie moments you would normally miss. Always ready to snap a picture, the SelfieBot can be controlled by your smartphone or operate independently.

Google Chrome for iOS Adds Emoji Translation

Google has added support for emoji translation to its popular Chrome browser for iOS and Android. Instead of boring and bland text, users can capture the sentiment of each page through efficient and emotive illustrations.

Today we’re announcing Google Translate support for Emoji, built directly into Chrome for Android and iOS. You can now read all your favorite web content using efficient and emotive illustrations, instead of cumbersome text. Our translation algorithm interprets not just the definition of the words on a webpage, but also their context, tone and if appropriate, facial expression. It then distills text into articulate, meaningful symbols so you can get more out of every screen.

MacRumors has not participated in April Fools’ Day prank news stories on its regular news pages in past years, and has no plans to break from that tradition this year. All news stories posted on our front page, iOS Blog, and Mac Blog today are real.

Amazon today notified customers they are eligible for a refund for books they purchased through the Kindle book store. The refunds were paid by publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin as part of a settlement agreement in ebook price-fixing lawsuits filed by State Attorney Generals and other class-action plaintiffs.

Amazon issued the settlement refund in the form of a Kindle book store credit that is automatically applied to a customer’s Amazon account. The credit is valid for one year and must be redeemed before 03/31/2015.

Good news! You are entitled to a credit of $27.55 for some of your past Kindle book purchases. The credit results from legal settlements reached with publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin in antitrust lawsuits filed by State Attorneys General and Class Plaintiffs about the price of eBooks.

You don’t have to do anything to claim your credit, we have already added your credit to your Amazon account. We will automatically apply your available credit to your next purchase of a Kindle book or print book sold by Amazon.com, regardless of publisher. The credit applied to your purchase will appear in your order summary. If your account does not reflect this credit, please contact Amazon’s customer service.

For more information about the settlements, please visit www.amazon.com/ebooksettlements

Your credit is valid for one year and will expire after 03/31/2015. If you have not used your credit, we will send you another email 90 days before it expires to remind you that it is still available.

Thanks for being a Kindle customer.

The Amazon Kindle Team

Select book sellers like Barnes & Noble and Sony are expected to begin issuing similar credits today, with postcard checks from other booksellers being sent via mail to consumers starting March 27, 2014. You can find information on book retailers and their refund payment methods on the e-book settlement web site.

Apple also was included in the antitrust lawsuits, but refused to settle. After being found guilty in federal court of conspiring to artificially inflate e-book prices, Apple was barred from entering into anticompetitive deals with content providers and must submit to court-appointed compliance monitoring. The Cupertino company also could owe as much as $500 million in damages, which are yet to be assessed.

Apple recently appealed the verdict, calling the plan a “draconian and punitive intrusion into Apple’s business, wildly out of proportion to any adjudicated wrongdoing or potential harm.”

As documented in its quarterly earnings reports over the years, Apple reported total sales of 472 million iPhones between the device’s 2007 launch and the end of 2013. With analyst estimates of over 38 million units for the current quarter ending in just a few days, the company has undoubtedly already sold its 500 millionth iPhone, a milestone that passed without mention from the Cupertino company, notes Forbes.

The consensus would have placed the milestone sale around March 8 given that entering the quarter Apple had sold 472 million iPhones. So even if it proves a bit high as it did last quarter, we’ve crossed the point where it’s safe to assume that Apple has sold 500 million smartphones in less than 7 years. And the most recent 100 million took somewhere between 2-6 weeks less than the previous 100 million did.

Apple is known for celebrating notable milestones, changing its homepage for the 30th anniversary of the Mac and setting up countdowns on its website for App Store milestones. The company reached the 50 billion app download milestone in May 2013 and awarded a $10,000 iTunes Store gift card to the person who downloaded the 50 billionth app.

Even though Apple didn’t announce the 500 million iPhone milestone, it is not without significance. Quarterly iPhone sales continue to rise consistently on a year-over-year basis, with the company selling a record 51 million iPhones in fiscal Q1 2014, up from 47.8 million in the same time period in the prior year.

These next few quarters may see a slump in iPhone sales as Apple gears up for a possible fall launch of the iPhone 6. Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6 is widely rumored to include a larger display, which could encourage a significant number of users to upgrade in 2014 and cause another spike in sales later this year.

It’s time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring exclusive TUAW Deals, a handy list from Dealnews and our own handpicked iOS and OS X selections.

TUAW’s Daily Deals

TOCCs 3-in-1 Smartphone Hi-Def Magnetic Lens Kit…

Last year, Realmac launched Clear+, a universal, iOS 7-compatible version of its task manager that was meant to replace the original iPhone-only version. The original version of Clear was discontinued, but consumer backlash over having to pay again for a new copy of the task manager prompted Realmac to continue updating the iPhone app. After months of maintaining two versions of the app, Realmac has reversed course yet again and is now returning to its original version of Clear, which has been updated with iPad support.

We’re going to be returning to just one, universal version of Clear for iOS, with the original version of Clear gaining iPad support. If you already own a copy of Clear, you don’t need to do anything as we’ve just launched an updated version of Clear with iPad support.

To appease customers who purchased Clear+, Realmac is offering the universal version of Clear for free so users can migrate to the only supported version of the app. This promotion will be offered twice and will be available for 24 hours at a time. Users can sign up to be alerted via email when the app is made free.

Clear is a universal app that is available from the iOS App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]

Samsung’s upcoming flagship device, the Galaxy S5, will indeed ship with a fingerprint sensor, reports Samsung-focused blog SamMobile. Contrary to earlier reports which hinted at a fingerprint sensor embedded into the display, however, this latest report claims the Galaxy S5 will adopt Apple’s model by integrating the sensor into the home button.

Samsung’s fingerprint sensor reportedly is activated using a swiping motion that scans the finger from base to tip, which differs from Apple’s motionless scan.

The sensor itself works in a swipe manner, which means that you would need to swipe the entire pad of your finger, from base to tip, across the home key to register your fingerprint properly. Also, you would need to keep your finger flat against the home key and swipe at a moderate speed or else it won’t recognise your fingerprint. The fingerprint sensor is sensitive to moisture, as well.

Samsung supposedly has added support for the scanning technology to various parts of the operating system, enabling users to secure files, widgets and apps using the scanning technology. Similar to iOS 7, Samsung will allow users to store multiple fingerprint scans on a phone or tablet and use them to unlock the device.

The Galaxy S5 is rumored to include a 5.2-inch display with a higher resolution screen than the current Galaxy S4, which is equipped with a 5-inch, 1080 x 1920 pixel display. The S5 also will feature an improved camera, better battery life and a lower price point. It likely will be unveiled alongside a new Galaxy Gear smart watch at Samsung’s Unpacked 2014 event, which will be held during Mobile World Congress 2014 later this month.

Apple has released another story in its current “Your Verse” ad campaign for the iPad Air that showcases the extraordinary use of the tablet in a variety of situations. This latest edition shows how mountaineers Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington have used the iPad when scaling some of the world’s most renowned mountains.

Ballinger and Harrington are shown using the iPad from base camp to summit, documenting their trip with photos and blog posts. Instead of waiting weeks to share their adventure, the pair used the iPad to provide expedition details as they happened. The iPad was also used for terrain mapping the terrain and route planning through treacherous mountain regions.

“Not long ago, they relied on outdated or inaccurate paper maps to inform their plan of attack. Sometimes maps of these areas didn’t even exist. But now with iPad and the Gaia GPS topography app, they can see remote mountain regions in great detail.”

“Five years ago, it was hard to even get a paper map of some of these places. Now with the iPad it’s remarkable how much we can plan ahead,” said Ballinger.

Mountain expeditions are only one of several stories highlighted by Apple. An earlier documentary shows how the iPad was used by biologist Michael Berumen to study underwater coral reefs, while other shorter profiles that encompass a variety of disciplines were summarized in the recent “Your Verse” ad. The “Your Verse” series is a continuation of the “Life on iPad” ad campaign that Apple kicked off last year.