APPLE'S BEST APPS OF THE YEAR 2011

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The year of 2011 for Apple has been an up and down rollercoaster ride and a buzz-worthy one. On the news not too long ago was a report from The Wall Street Journal about Apple vs. Samsung legal battle in regards to Samsung's alleged product "copying" of Apple's products, and of course, the big news about the passing away of Apple's beloved former CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on October 5.


This time, however, it's a different twist on a positive note for Apple as the company just revealed its best apps for the year 2011.


Apple's picks for the best iOS apps and games selection includes top-performing apps in different genres of Podcasts and Books, TV shows, movies, music and App Store.


Winners of this year's best of the bunch are picked and ranked under "Best paid apps" and "Best free apps," "Best iPad apps" and "Best iPhone apps."


The best free app of the year went to Instagram, a photo-sharing app that is also one of the world's fastest-growing social networks.


In addition, the best free app game of the year went to Tiny Tower, an app that lets users grow an economic empire by building towers and populating them with businesses and bitizens.


Whereas, the best paid app of the year went to Snapseed, a photo-editing app that lets users pinch, mold, and shape effects to make jaw-dropping beautiful photos.


Meanwhile, the paid app game of the year for iPad went to Dead Space, a horrifying game that lets users act as a hero and fight for survival on an eerie space station overrun by zombies in the year 2508.

APPLE'S BEST APPS OF THE YEAR 2011

APPLE EYES FUEL CELL MAC BOOK

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A pair of new patent apps show that Apple is eyeing MacBooks that have fuel cells for power. The fuel cell isn’t a new concept, but so far there are no notebooks on the market using them. The fuel cell is cool because there is no charge time, you just add more fuel and you can work indefinitely.

The fuel cell is also very green. Two patent apps have surfaced that hint at the fuel cell machines called “Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device” and “Fuel Cell System Coupled to a Portable Computing Device.” The patent apps note that the fuel cell could allow the notebooks to operate for days or weeks with no refueling.

That is a very promising though. To be able to travel for a week with no need for an AC outlet would be great. The fuel cells in the apps would charge a battery in the device. It sounds like the notebook equivalent of the Chevrolet Volt car where a power generator charges the battery. I’d like to see this happen, but I take this with a grain of salt. We have been expecting fuel cells for years now and they have proven very difficult to produce and sell.

APPLE EYES FUEL CELL MAC BOOK

NEWSPAPER ACCESS FOR IOS BY KINDLE

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Those who use Amazon's Kindle app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch can now finally access newspaper and magazine subscriptions that were previously only available to hardware Kindle users. The company announced the new Kindle for iOS feature, along with a handful of others, on Wednesday morning. Amazon claims that users now have access to more than 400 publications that can be delivered straight to their devices.

In addition to the ability to read your magazine and newspaper subscriptions through Amazon, Kindle for iOS users can now also access documents that they send to their private "send-to-kindle" e-mail address through the app. Amazon also says it has added a PDF reader that will open PDFs from within Mail or Safari on the device, or PDFs transferred via iTunes. "The PDF reader is enhanced with support for PDF table of contents and thumbnail navigation for quickly jumping through the document," the company said via e-mail.

The new features are available today via an app update through Apple's App Store, but when I tested it on my iPad to see if I could access a New York Times subscription on my account, the app claimed there were no subscriptions to be had. Amazon did not respond to our request for clarification on this point by publication time, so it's unclear as to why this is happening.

NEWSPAPER ACCESS FOR IOS BY KINDLE

Apple now displays parental advisory warnings on iTunes music

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Digital music sellers, including Apple, Amazon, HMV and Napster, have agreed to start displaying the official Parental Advisory warning label on tracks and albums on their respective music marketplaces, moving to mirror labels printed on physical CDs and DVDs.

The Telegraph reports that Apple, Amazon, HMV, Napster UK, eMusic, 7digital, Tesco and Vevo (a music video website) will display the warning, providing parents with a way of knowing if music that is being downloaded may be unsuitable for a younger audience.

In addition to the digital rollout, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has launched a new website: parental-advisory.co.uk. The site is a resource for parents to learn more about the warnings but also for music labels and digital music sellers to sign up to the voluntary scheme.

The BPI does not force retailers to display the notice, acknowledging that some companies may choose to use their own means of warning customers of the content that they provide.

Until recently, Apple fell into this category, displaying the Explicit tag next to each of the tracks it deemed would be unsuitable for younger audiences. However, Apple now displays the ‘Parental Advisory’ logo underneath the album artwork on the iTunes Music Store (shown above) — putting more support behind the scheme.

With increasing numbers of young people buying their music online instead of bricks-and-mortar stores, the roll out of the warning will help parents especially over the Christmas period as their children spend their vouchers and money on digital downloads for their Apple devices.

Apple now displays parental advisory warnings on iTunes music

Alternative Take on Apple Patent Wars

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The Apple-Android legal war continues. Just last week alone, a French court rejected a proposed ban on Apple’s iPhone devices, while Samsung added to the charges it is filing against its US rival in Germany.

For those who struggle to keep up with goings on, or find the constant stream of litigation, court rulings and hearing dates a tad boring, this animated take on the current situation — which we found via MIC Gadget — is recommending viewing indeed.

Go ahead and take a look, you can’t afford to miss the chance to watch Steve Jobs wield a lightsaber and literally crush Android with his bare hands, can you?

The video is produced Next Media Animation, a Taiwanese company that is becoming well known for its off-the-wall take on news. Readers may recall that the firm previously produced the amusing ‘alternative’ iPhone 5 advert which we wrote about in October.

Alternative Take on Apple Patent Wars

Ultrabook holiday pricing on the cheap

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For an ultrabook, HP's Folio 13 offers a lot for $900.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

Ultrabooks are available for the first time this holiday season. That calls for a quick survey of pricing since models have debuted at unexpectedly low prices.

As a refresher, ultrabooks are skinny (typically under 0.8 inches thick), lightweight (three pounds or less) laptops that offer mainstream mobile performance.

In short, they attempt to approximate the portability of a tablet while offering more horsepower via Intel processors. And, of course, they run full-blown Windows--not a minor point.

Pricing runs the gamut but the most-recently-released ultrabooks all fall below the $1,000 mark at retailers like Best Buy. That's important because they need to be well under $1,000 in order to have a shot at mass-market success. So, how do they stack up on price and features?

HP Folio 13: HP's Folio 13 is, on balance, getting good reviews. And the specs may have something to do with it. For $900 you get a Core i5 processor, 128GB solid-state drive, backlit keyboard, USB 3.0 port (among other ports), and good battery life.

Toshiba Portege Z835-P330: Toshiba's claim to fame is price. After selling for $699 at Best Buy last week, the 13-inch ultrabook is back to $799. But it's a decent deal for what you get. It sports a magnesium chassis and reviews have generally been pretty favorable (I handled one at a tech conference and was impressed). Specifications include a Core i3 chip, 128GB SSD, backlit keyboard, USB 3.0 port, HDMI connector, and Gigabit Ethernet.

Note that there is no Bluetooth on this Toshiba model.

Acer Aspire S3: Even though it's a bit pricier at $900 ($899.99), reviews have been tepid. One of the issues, as CNET Reviews pointed out, is that it packs a hybrid hard disk drive system (a 20GB SSD combined with a 5,400rpm 320GB HDD) rather than a pure SSD. While there's nothing wrong with that (and we'll likely see more hybrid storage ultrabooks), it doesn't fare well when compared to SSD-only systems. The S3 does use an Intel Core i5 processor, though--that's a plus.

Asus Ultrabook (11.6-inch) At a list price of $999.99 (or about $50 less--at online stores such as Amazon), the Zenbook is the priciest one in this group but well-equipped for an 11.6-incher (the ones listed above are all 13-inch class ultrabooks). Boasting a Core i5 processor, 128GB SSD, a USB 3.0 port, it weighs only 2.4 pounds. It's considered an upscale ultrabook because of an all-metal construction.

MacBook Air While not labeled an ultrabook (Perish the thought!) it's the design that pioneered the category (the MacBook Air was introduced in January of 2008). The 11.6 inch Air can be had for around $940 at retailers such as Mac Connection. On a raw feature for feature basis, it falls short of the Windows variety above. The Air only has a 64GB SSD and 2GB of memory--in both cases half the amount found on similarly-priced or less expensive Windows ultrabooks. That said, it's an Apple product and that means high-quality components and construction.

Next year will see a cavalcade of ultrabook introductions. Some of the most compelling will use Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge silicon and ship in the late spring or early summer time frame. Until then, this is a pretty good start.

Ultrabook holiday pricing on the cheap