Angry Birds Seasons has been updated for Easter with golden eggs a-plenty.
As we all know, every season is an Angry Birds season. After St. Patrick’s, Trick Or Treat and Season’s Greedings, Angry Birds Seasons is back – and now there are chocolate eggs and bunnies!
What's New In This Version:
EASTER EGGS FOR ANGRY BIRDS!
Spring is upon us and the time is ripe for some chocolate eggs and easter bunnies! So shed the winter gear and get in – Easter Eggs have never been this delicious! If you think St. Patrick’s Day was a blast, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet! This episode will again prove that Angry Birds is the most generous update giver of them all!
New Features in version 1.4.0:
- 15 LEVELS FULL OF SPRING
- NEW THEME TO FIT THE MOOD
- GOLDEN EGGS A-PLENTY
- LISTEN TO THE TWITTER OF BIRDS TO GET MORE
You can purchase Angry Birds Seasons HD from the App Store for $1.99 or Angry Birds Seasons for $.99.
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Microsoft has released Photosynth, an iPhone app that lets you capture a 360° panorama of wherever you are.
Photosynth for iOS is the panorama creation and sharing app that lets you capture more of your world. Now you can capture 360° in all directions (up, down, left, and right) to create spectacular images. Using the latest in computer vision techniques, Photosynth makes it easy and fun to create and share interactive panoramas of wherever you are.
Features:
• See your panorama take shape as you capture them with INTERACTIVE CAPTURE
• Look and capture in all directions with FULL-SPHERE PANORAMAS
• See the final panorama right away with fast ON-DEVICE PROCESSING
• Sharp, high-resolution results with the ADVANCED IMAGE STITCHING ENGINE
• Panoramas are always available to view and share from the ON-DEVICE LIBRARY
• Zoom, pan, stretch, and view in landscape or portrait with our IMMERSIVE VIEWER
• Save as many panoramas as you want and view them online at PHOTOSYNTH.NET
Sharing:
• Share to Facebook with images or interactive panoramas
• Share to Bing Maps to see your panoramas throughout Bing
• Your panorama images are available to any app from the Camera Roll
You can download Photosynth from the App Store for free.
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Apple has quietly upgraded some recent MacBook Air orders with Samsung solid-state flash memory drives, offering even faster read and write times.
Some MacBook Air units were discovered by AnandTech to include the SM128C SSD, presumed to be manufactured by Samsung. When the newly redesigned MacBook Air first went on sale last October, units included the Toshiba TS128C flash drive.
The difference between the two drives is noteworthy: Testing shows the Samsung SSD has a read time of 261.1MB per second, compared with 209.8MB/s for the Toshiba drive. Similarly, the Samsung has a superior write time of 209.6MB/s, compared to 175.6MB/s write times with the Toshiba drive.
"There is no absolute confirmation that Samsung manufactures the SM128C, but all indicators point that way," author Kristian Vatto wrote. "Regardless of manufacturer, the SM128C appears noticeably faster in sequential read/write performance. What we can't confirm is how the two models differ in more intense testing, specifically with regards to random read/write performance, TRIM support, etc."
Rather than relying on traditional 2.5-inch or 1.8-inch SSDs, the new MacBook Air drives utilize a new form factor known as mSATA. After the thinner and lighter MacBook Air was unveiled last year, Toshiba announced its Blade X-gale SSD series, the same hardware found in Apple's thin-and-light notebook.
Though Samsung and Apple compete in making notebooks, phones and tablets, Apple is also Samsung's largest customer, with a reported $7.8 billion in purchases planned for 2011. Samsung provides the custom-built processors Apple uses in its mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad, and also provides liquid crystal displays.
Another major component Samsung is responsible for is flash memory, with that partnership forged through a landmark deal in 2005. Flash memory has since become a crucial part of Apple's product line, ranging from the iPhone to the iPad to the new MacBook Air.
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Driven by strong sales of the new Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Pro lineup, domestic Mac sales are estimated to have increased 47 percent year over year in the month of March.
The new estimates from the NPD Group were revealed Monday by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. NPD's estimates for U.S. sales put Apple up 20 percent year over year in January, 12 percent in February, and 47 percent in March, resulting in an average of 27 percent year over year for the quarter.
Actual Mac sales for the quarter will be known come Wednesday afternoon when Apple reveals its quarterly earnings for the second fiscal quarter of 2011. Apple is scheduled to report its earnings after the market closes, and will hold a conference call at 5 p.m. Eastern to discuss the results.
Munster said a 27 percent year over year increase in Mac sales would represent total sales of between 3.6 million and 3.7 million. The data shows Apple tracking on the high end of Wall Street expectations of about 3.6 million Macs sold in the quarter.
Mac sales growth slowed slightly in February, according to NPD figures, ahead of Apple's MacBook Pro lineup refresh. The new MacBook Pros were released in late February, packing Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors and the new high-speed Thunderbolt data port.
But Mac sales rebounded strongly in March, the first full month in which the new MacBook Pros were available. Still, Munster noted that Mac revenue is estimated to account for just 21 percent of Apple's revenue in calendar year 2011.
The latest NPD data also showed U.S. iPod sales down 10 percent year over year. International iPod sales are a larger mix than international Mac sales, resulting in a slightly greater margin of error from domestic NPD data.
Drawing assumptions from the NPD data, Munster sees Apple reporting sales of between 9.8 million and 10.3 million iPods for its second quarter of fiscal 2011. That's in line with Wall Street's expectations of 10 million iPods for the three-month frame.
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Apple has filed a new patent lawsuit against rival Samsung, accusing the company of copying the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad for its own Galaxy-branded smartphone and tablet products.
The suit, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, claims the South Korean electronics company copied Apple's mobile devices with products like the Galaxy S, Nexus S and Epic 4G smartphone, as well as the Galaxy Tab touchscreen tablet.
Apple has accused Samsung of violating patents it owns related to the design and creation of the iPhone and iPad. Last September, APC observed that Samsung's Galaxy Tab accessories were so similar to the iPad that the site said, "we can feel an Apple lawsuit coming on."
"Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple's technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products," the complaint reads.
The growing rivalry between Samsung and Apple is complex, because Apple is also the largest customer of Samsung, with a reported $7.8 billion in purchases planned for 2011. Samsung builds the custom chips used by Apple in devices like the iPhone and iPad, and also supplies flash memory and liquid crystal displays.
Apple's latest legal action is similar to a suit filed over a year ago against HTC. In that complaint, Apple accused HTC of infringing on 20 iPhone-related patents, and cited Google Android-powered handsets including the Nexus One.
"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said in a statement that accompanied the HTC lawsuit. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
Apple is also engaged in a high-profile legal battle with another major rival, Nokia. Apple has sued Nokia, and is also being sued in an ongoing patent infringement suit.
