Create a great video but struggling with pairing it with the perfect music? YouTube Producer has come to the rescue! YouTube Producer offers tens of thousands of copyright free music that you can add to your videos before sharing to YouTube and not fear that it will be removed for containing copyrighted material.

Most of us have music libraries filled with copyrighted material and need an app like this to even add music to our movies that will be uploaded to YouTube. YouTube Producer has a great selection of music that can be sorted by genre, mood or tempo, but does have some limitations. Namely, the music you choose for your video must be placed in the background of the entire movie. Using it’s music for just your intro, for example, is not an option. You do have control over volume, however – either mix the music with the movie’s audio, or have only the new music.

This is not a full-blown video editor, so if that’s what you’re looking for, move along. YouTube Producer simply provides you with some music to add to the videos in your Camera Roll then upload to YouTube. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The YouTube Producer provides you with the perfect background music for your videos.

• Wedding video? There’s a song for that.
• Hawaiian vacation video? There’s a song for that.
• Christmas video? There’s a song for that.

The YouTube Producer songs are

• HIGH QUALITY
• FREE
• COPYRIGHT FREE
• UNLIMITED (tens of thousands)

Browse by

• 4 Tempos
• 12 Genres
• 19 Moods
• simply choose a random song
• or choose from the most popular songs

YouTube Producer is available on the iPhone for free.

• App Store link

Georgia, Seth, and Rene talk about copy-cat apps, iMovie vs. Avid, Launch Center, Jailbreak apps for iOS 5, as well as cases with stands, iPhone guns, and glowing Apple logo mods. This is Apps & Accessories Live!

• Subscription information coming soon! Right now you can enjoy Apps & Accessories Live in the iPhone & iPad Live fees!

Meta

• February is fitness month at iMore and Mobile Nations! [iPad 3 giveaway!]
• Don’t forget we give away a ton of stuff!

App News

• Apple removes copy-cat apps from the App Store, doesn't address larger issues
• iMovie vs Avid Studio: iPad video editing app shootout
• Readdle Remarks brings note-taking and PDF annotating in one to iPad
• Book Palette for Mac offers 10 beautiful templates for iBooks Author
• iMore app picks of the week for February 4, 2012 [Giveaway]

Jailbreak Apps

• BiteSMS vs Messages+ for iOS 5: which should you use?
• LockInfo vs IntelliscreenX for iOS 5 jailbreak: which should you use?
• Hands-on with Zephyr for the iPhone and iPod Touch [Jailbreak Apps]

Launch Center

• Launch Center puts Messages, Facebook, Twitter, a flashlight, more in your iPhone Notification Center

Accessory News

• Xappr Gun turns your iPhone into an FPS dream machine!

• Ten One Design announces Pogo Sketch Plus capacitive stylus for iPhone and iPad
• Hands on with the Jot Touch, a pressure sensitive stylus by Adonit

• Incipio SILICRYLIC case with kickstand for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 vs. Case-Mate Pop! Case with Stand for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4

iPhone Mods

• iFixit Thirsty Bag for iPhone, iPad review
• iFixit iPhone transparent rear panel mod kit review
• Hands on with the glowing Apple logo mod for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S

Hosts

• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb)
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter [@iMore](http://twitter.com/imore), or you can email us at , or leave a comment on the website when the show goes live.

We’re here every Sunday night at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 2am GMT, and our companion show — iPhone and iPad Live! — is at the same time, on the same channel, on Wednesday nights — www.iMore.com/live

For all our podcasts — audio and video — including iPhone and iPad Live, ZENandTECH and Superfunctional, Iterate and Girls Gone Gadget and more… see MobileNations.com/shows

If you haven’t already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

Thanks to the iMore Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Not only did more smartphones sell this quarter than ever before, but Apple was responsible for all three of top sellers — iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS

IDC has released a new report showing overall smartphone shipments grew a staggering 54.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 thanks to overwhelming demand for the iPhone 4S. Rising popularity has helped push the iPhone 4S to become the number one selling smartphone in the world. Not only did Apple absolutely own the top selling spot, but they owned the top 3 spots as well. That’s right, second only to the iPhone 4S in popularity was the iPhone 4, followed up by the iPhone 3GS according to NPD Group.

Apple climbed back into the market leadership position with the launch of its iPhone 4S worldwide, and in the process it reached a new shipment volume record for itself and for the entire industry for a single quarter. Although the iPhone 4S disappointed some detractors by lacking 4G LTE connectivity or a different size screen, demand was high for the device. In addition, the combination of holiday seasonality, the delay in product launch from 3Q to 4Q, and the addition of multiple mobile operators helped drive volumes higher.

This comes after some voiced concern over setting expectations too high for the iPhone 4S, and many worried whether it was a significant enough upgrade to attract customers in large numbers. A better 8MP camera with a faster Apple A5 chip, a more reliable antenna, and Siri seem to have been more than enough to drive sales.

Something to watch for as well — Vendors shipped a total of 157.8 million smartphones worldwide last quarter and one out of every 3 mobile phones shipped was a smartphone. This shows a continuation of the trend that should, in short order, lead to the day when all phones are smartphones.

How many iPhones will Apple be able to sell then?

Source: IDC, Fortune, NPD

Halliburton, one of the world’s largest energy corporations with over 70,000 employees worldwide, will be making a huge move away from BlackBerrys, and converting their employees to iPhones. For those still not convinced about the iPhone and iOS’ place in enterprise, this decision comes after Halliburton did significant research into both Apple’s platform and the Android, and decided Apple was the way to go.

BlackBerry is undoubtedly still the best communications device on the planet, but increasingly users and businesses alike are requiring more than just communication — they’re requiring mobile computing platforms.

To give a sense of the breadth of this change, Energy Services Group (ESG) is Halliburton’s largest business segment and provides technical products and services for petroleum and natural gas exploration and production. Up until now Halliburton employees had been given BlackBerries. If they wanted an alternative the only option they were given were Windows Phones. BlackBerry have been part of Halliburton’s IT policy for over 10 years. Right now Halliburton supplies about 4,500 of their employees with BlackBerry smartphones.

BlackBerrys have long been the staple of enterprise — they performed well and lived up to what enterprise customers have come to expect. The iPhone and iPad have made great strides over the past several iterations of iOS in order to provide better support for business users. And it’s paying off.

More and more companies are starting to support iOS in enterprise on a regular basis, while others are letting the users choose with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) initiatives.

Apple recently announced that pretty much all of the Fortune 500 were testing or deploying iOS devices within their organizations, which is startling considering how slowly enterprise usually is when it comes to responding to new technologies.

Even RIM has made moves to provide BlackBerry enterprise support for iPhone and iPad. Now we just need RIM’s new CEO to provide full on BlackBerry Connect functionality before other companies, like Good ride iPhone and iPad success to an insurmountable lead.

Are you using your iPhone in the enterprise? Let us know how wide iPhone and iPad deployment is where you work, and how they’re affecting productivity.

Source: AppleInsider

iMore isn’t just a website, it’s a community fueled by millions of people who comment on the stories, give and get help on the iPhone and iPad forums, and join us each and every month in discovering great new ways to enjoy our iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads. With almost 4,000 forum posts to his credit, Steve (aka BLiNK) is exactly that kind of super engaged, incredibly helpful, truly awesome iMore community member. He’s also our very first reader of the month!

But enough from us, let’s let Steve do the talking.

So, tell us a little about yourself?

Hy my name is Steve. California native currently living in the Midwest, I miss the beach. I am an estimator for a disaster restoration/construction co. so our fortune is due to someone else's misfortune. I like mountain biking, sports, concerts, listening to music and hanging with the family. I hope to move back to Cali in the next year or two, so fingers crossed for that!

How long have you been an iPhone or iPad user?

I have been an iphone user for about 3 years now. Previously was a BlackBerry user and never thought I would leave. My first iDevice was the iPhone 3G

What brought you to iOS?

At the time I had an upgrade coming due so naturally I was testing the waters to see if there actually was anything better than my BlackBerry. After reading forums and comments about the iPhone the consensus was it was more of a gimmicky device but I went ahead and made the jump anyways. Very glad I did!

What brought you to iMore?

Coming from CrackBerry.com I was looking for another reputable site/forum to join and at the time TiPb — now iMore — was the perfect fit for me, still is. I have made a lot of friends and there are a lot of helpful members here. All the things what a forum/community should be, plus excellent and up to date news. Thanks to all that make this work.

What are your favorite apps?

Typically I jailbreak my device so I have a lot of favorites from Cydia but assuming we're talking App store I would have to say some of my most used would be:

• ESPN Scorecenter
• ScoreMobile
• Spotify
• Pandora

What are your favorite accessories?

I am not a big fan of cases so I am "naked" for the most part. In regards to other accessories I guess I have not really taken the time to dabble like most.

What are you most looking forward to from Apple in the future?

I am really looking forward to the next iPhone since I skipped the iPhone 4S in hopes of a design change. Also, I will be buying my first iPad this year (iPad 3) so I am pretty stoked about that and if everything goes well a MacBook also. Then the ecosystem will be complete!

Thanks Steven!

If you haven’t joined our incredible community yet, there’s never been a better time. Meet great people, get help with your iPhone and iPad, share your ideas, and enjoy fantastic conversation. Perfect for newcomers and pros alike — Join now!

AssistantExtensions is a jailbreak app for iPhone 4S that greatly enhances what you can do with Apple’s Siri virtual assistant, including voice activation, app launching, translation, and more. Developers can even add their own, custom commands via a new plug-in architecture. That means, unlike the limited built-in functionality Apple provides, many more powerful, and interesting, commands become available.

AssistantExtensions bundles a number of commands together, including the ability to send tweets from Siri, and an interesting “chat mode” where Siri loads additional content so she/he can better have a conversation with you (though the server load must be heavy as it frequently experiences time outs).

For even more functionality, AssistantExtensions lets developers create custom commands and tasks using Siri. You can already use AssistantExtensions to access SBSettings to quickly toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode, etc. Hopefully more and more jailbreak developers start integrating support.

Out of the box, you can use Siri to activate SBSettings toggles or launch apps without even touching your iPhone — a great way to increase efficiency when using Siri. The only issues we’ve noticed with AssistantExtensions are random conflicts with SiriToggles, although other users have seen mixed reports.

• Free – Cydia Link

If you’re looking for even more jailbreak utilities, here are the best jailbreak applications for iOS 5.

If you’re looking to get started with jailbreak, here are your go-to resources.

• How to jailbreak guides
• Jailbreak apps, hacks, and themes
• General jailbreak and unlock help forums

It turns out that Apple’s Siri voice assistant is enabled by special noise reduction hardware called earSmart, wired right into the Apple A5 processor. The technology is made by Audience, which has an earSmart-less chip in the iPhone 4. The difference is, the iPhone 4 chip was designed to reduce noise when speaking directly into the microphone (like when you’re on a phone call), while the chip in the iPhone 4S is designed for a wider field of sound, so you could talk to your phone at arm’s-length (as one tends to with Siri) and still benefit from noise cancellation. The bundling of earSmart with the processor explains why the A5 chip was so much bigger than expected, even after taking into account the second core. It also means that, if you’re still desperately clinging to the hope that Apple will someday update the iPhone 4 with Siri functionality, now’s the time to let go.

Siri was obviously a defining feature of the iPhone 4S, which was sorely needed considering all of the cosmetic similarities to its predecessor. Apple was even willing to throw in an extra infrared sensor to optimize the Siri experience. Now the assistant is poised to leap onto Apple TV and the iPad, assuming the earSmart is included on those devices too. Now, if things could get a little more optimized on the software side so that Siri doesn’t double your data usage, then Siri would have all of its bases covered. It’s worth noting that earSmart also licenses out to a bunch of other manufacturers, so you can expect voice control on other platforms over time. Just, uh, don’t expect the Android alternatives to be blowing Siri out of the water just yet.

While this doesn’t leave a lot of hope for an official port of Siri to the iPhone 4, you can always try some warrantee-exploding hackery… Head on over here to see some of the devices that currently have earSmart included.

Source: CNET

TinyWorld is a fun little app that turns your photos into miniature planets that you can save or share with friends. Specifically, it warps what your iPhone camera sees in front of you into 360 degree spheres, making your room, your garden, your skyline, your tourist shots — whatever you want to take a picture of — into the surface of a planet.

TinyWorld was recently updated and now allows you adjust tilting after taking your photo to fine tune where the two ends of you flat world meet. You can also convert your preexisting photos into a TinyWorld. Additionally, exporting your photos directly into Instagram is now supported.

I’m having a lot of fun with this little app! Now I just wish I was back in San Francisco where the tall buildings would make for a fantastic TinyWorld photo.

If you pick this one up, please share your little planets in our Photography Forum. We’d love to see them!

TinyWorld turns your environment into miniaturized worlds. The app’s “One Click to Shoot” process makes this simple and fun, while the live preview editor allows you to see the results before they’re created. And with easy exportation to eMail, Twitter, and Instagram, it’s never been more fun to create planetoids from your iPhone!

• Live preview guarantees quality in the finished product
• Easy exportation to popular social networking services like Twitter and Instagram, as well as eMail
• Seamless creation of planetoid-like photos from shots of your environment
• Fine-tuned controls allow for streamlined editing of shots, even after the shutter has closed

Update notes:

• Even better performing live warping preview
• Warping of existing photos is now also supported
• Adjust the tilting afterwards, to fine tune your planet’s shape
• Gradually adjust the softening of the stitching seam
• Share using email, Twitter or Instagram

TinyWorld is available on the iPhone for $0.99.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Do not — repeat — do NOT put WD-40 or any such substance in your iPhone or iPad — it won’t permenantly fix your Home button and may, in fact, damage it far worse. The idea that repeatedly squirting WD-40 into your iPhone or iPad Home button could fix responsiveness began floating around the internet last month and has gotten some attention — that needs to be stopped immediately. Keep in mind we’re huge fans of DIY repair here at iMore. We have a weekly column focused on DIY repair. But putting WD-40 on your iPhone is not DIY repair. It’s dangerous, particularly for iPhones and iPads that are built with moving, plastic parts.

WD-40 may be non-conductive but the solvent in it will break down plastic. Your home button is plastic as well as some of the internal parts. Your speaker assembly is plastic and sits directly below your home button. Also, WD-40 is a liquid and you’re spraying it dangerously close to where the wiring for the dock — the place you charge your iPhone or iPad — sits. The only substance that should ever be applied to an iPhone or iPad is high concentrated alcohol to remove corrosion from a logic board after it has been damaged by another liquid. None of the other components should ever come in contact with liquid. Including WD-40.

To understand what causes a sticky home button you need to understand how the home button works. On an iPhone 4 there is a flex cable that connects to your dock and comes around the front. This piece has a contact on it that is connected to the home button with adhesive. When this button is depressed too many times, the contact starts to wear and get thin. Eventually this results in a “tacky” home button or clicks not registering as the contact is not thick enough to apply the correct amount of pressure to register to trigger a click. It was bad design on Apple’s part, especially after introducing the double-click to launch the Fast App Switcher in iOS 4.

The iPhone 4S Home button was re-designed to fix these problems. The button is actually stuck to the main assembly with a rubber gasket. Then a bracket is put into position behind that, similar to that of the iPad 2.

Your iPhone or iPad Home button isn’t a squeaky old spring or noisy hinge that a couple of squirts of grease can easily fix. If the Home button flex cable wears down over time, nothing but replacing the Home button flex cable will solve the issue. Spraying a substance like WD-40 into your device will only make matters worse or damage other components inside your device. If you’re under warranty Apple will swap out your iPhone 4 at no cost. If you’re not, you should repair it the correct way or send it in to someone who can. Here are some good software fixes to try on your own first –

• How to troubleshoot a buggy home button
• Get around a broken home button with an Activator gesture (jailbreak)

So put the WD-40 can down and slowly back away, then tell everyone you know — including the people who post these tips — to do likewise.

Kenisngton and Chelsea College in the UK is planning a new course which will be devoted entirely to taking photographs with the iPhone's camera. The course in “iPhoneography” is thought to be the first ever course of its kind in the United Kingdom.

The college says many iPhone owners struggle to use the camera properly. Students will create images using the iPhone camera and a range of “apps”. Tutor, Richard Gray, said: “all you need is a passion for photography and a creative mind.” Students are required to have their own iPhone to do the course which will begin next month. “With the right apps and skills, the iPhone can be a powerful creative tool,” said Mr Gray. “It is a great levelling force within photography. No longer do you need expensive or complex equipment to produce great images,” he added.

Mr Gray is planning on teaching students the basic rules of composition, color and light as well as editing skills using various iOS apps. He sees the iPhone as revolutionising photography by the way it allows you to take a picture, edit it and post it online all within minutes; no matter where you are. Mr Gray will also be holding a free workshop at the Apple Store in Regent Street, London in the near future.

We’ve been saying that here at iMore for years, of course. We even have a dedicated iPhone photography forum available for you to discuss the subject, share tips, and start projects. With more to come!

Source: BBC

Apple is increasingly playing defense against lawsuits from Samsung and Motorola that seek to take iPhones and iPads off the shelves and out of stores. Apple is trying to do the same to their competitors, of course, but there’s a subtle difference — Samsung and Motorola are suing Apple over FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, And Non-Discriminatory) patents and are apparently seeking licensing that’s anything but fair and reasonable, and may in fact be discriminatory.

FRAND patents are typically typically pledged as part of a standard, which makes them essential to a technology, the organizations that govern those standards require them to be equitably licensed back to everyone. That’s the whole point of having standards. If you want your invention to become a standard, you let it be used as a standard.

FRAND vs. non-FRAND

Apple doesn’t play the FRAND game with the iPhone or iPad. They don’t want their multitouch patents to be a standard. They don’t want other companies using them. (Unlike Microsoft, they don’t want to make their competitors’ products more expensive, they want them to stop being Apple-like.)

Samsung and Motorola did play the FRAND game, however, and did want their wireless patents — covering core 3G technologies, among other things — to be standards. However, when Samsung and Motorola infringe on Apple’s non-FRAND patents, they then demand outrageous terms from Apple to license their FRAND patents — which Apple has to use for their products to work on existing networks — hoping Apple will cave and cross-license their non-FRAND patents as part of the deal.

Put another way, it’s like the owner of your local public pool refusing to let you swim there unless you let them swim in your private pool at home. Worse, it’s like the manager of your local public pool demanding you pay him $1,000,000 dollars to swim in a pool you’re supposed to have fair and equal access too, unless he gets to swim in your private pool at home. Worse still, it’s like the manager of your local pool has made agreements that force anyone who wants to swim anywhere to get a license from his pool first, then demands you pay him a fortune for it, and give him access to your private, home pool. (In one case, in a swim-suit that looks surprisingly like yours. Only bigger.)

What can Apple do?

According to Florian Mueller over at FOSS Patents, this means Apple has to be careful, and iterative in their defense.

Apple won’t get a deal that meets its needs unless Samsung and Motorola (or Google) are forced to recognize the fundamentally greater strategic and commercial value of Apple’s non-standards-related patents, which are the fruit of independent innovation and independent commercialization as opposed to a company’s ability to push its patented ideas into industry standards everyone is forced to implement after a collective of major industry players defines them.

Samsung and Motorola (or Google) would like all patents to be treated in more or less the same way. They give nothing more than lip service to their FRAND licensing obligations. They may hope that the law on this isn’t sufficiently settled in major jurisdictions. They look for loopholes in the rules — including certain opportunities in Germany, where the case law on this is more favorable to them than elsewhere. If they realize at some point that this strategy doesn’t work out because of a combination of court rulings, regulatory intervention and Apple’s determination to stand its ground, then — and only then — Apple will ultimately get the kind of deal it wants. Until then, Apple doesn’t even have much to talk about with Samsung and Motorola (or Google).

Sure, you can say Apple is being selfish by not licensing multitouch to one and all, but they never agreed to in the first place. (Are you being a selfish by not letting everyone who wants to come swim in your private home pool?) Samsung and Motorola did agree to let everyone use their patents under FRAND terms so those patents would be become essential to the standard.

Enter the European Union

Now Samsung and Motorola are certainly free to do and to sue what and who they want… up to a point. The European Union has already announced they’re investigating Samsung for FRAND abuse, and Motorola may not be far behind. With pressure from Apple on one side, and anti-trust action on the other, it puts them in a delicate position.

In the meantime, Apple can’t give in to Samsung and Motorola’s unfair, unreasonable, and discriminatory demands, and they can’t risk injunctions like the one that was temporarily in effect in Germany last week, becoming permanent before the EU sorts everything out.

Whether or not there will ultimately be a settlement, like the one they achieved with Nokia over similar FRAND patents, only time will tell. All Apple can do for now is continue the careful, iterative defense.

Mueller’s whole article, which delves into the patents and legal issues in great detail, is worth a read.

Source: FOSS Patents, x2

“Smash Cops brings the excitement of high-speed car chases to your iPhone and iPad with top-notch graphics, high intensity game-play, and interesting (if challenging) controls.”

Smash Cops recently hit featured status in the App Store, and after playing it for a few days, I can see why. It’s a deceptively simple racing game that provides excellent controls, fluid graphics, and has some signature local evening news flair to it.

The premise is that you’re driving a cop car, and you have to chase down bad guys through a winding route, and ram into their vehicle often enough to make them crash. There’s a healthy amount of variation on this theme, including timed challenges, obstacle courses to test your finesse, and scenarios where you’re the one being chased. Whatever the goals of the level may be, you’re usually provided with helpful waypoints at intersections so you know which direction to go. There’s plenty of civilian traffic in the way, posing slight obstacles, but for the most part, they can be plowed through with little worry.

The default control scheme was fairly new to me. You press the screen behind your on-screen vehicle to adjust its steering, letting go to stop the gas, or tapping the screen with your other hand for a quick burst of speed. You can switch this up to a traditional virtual joystick, but the default is novel to play with, if nothing else. The controls are certainly intuitive, but I find they’re often more challenging than they should be. At times, you can turn a corner very sharply, while at other times, you drift and lose a lot of control. There may be a trick to this that I’m just not getting, but so far it has made nimble driving difficult, especially in the obstacle course stage. Having played a bunch of Need for Speed on the PlayBook, I think an option for accelerometer control would be really nice.

The overall gameplay is still great. There’s a real solid “Channel 9 Evening News” angle, where the camera following you is accompanied by the sound of a news chopper. Many of the UI elements are fashioned after TV fly-ins. I would have liked to see a few more unlocks beyond the five cars you made available over the course of gameplay. Maybe some vehicle tweaks to increase boost regeneration, or bump speed up a notch. There are a few microtransactions available, but they feel forced. For $4.99, you can unlock all of the vehicles without having to play through the game. For $0.99, you can pick up 3 Super Cops. These are one-shot upgrades the make your cop car awesome and help you blast through tough levels. While I appreciate being able to earn these in the challenge missions, I doubt my frustration would ever reach the point of spending money to beat a level, especially if I’ve already shelled out $2.99 for the game. Now, if there was a free version of Smash Cops, maybe with ads and fewer cars and missions, microtransactions might be a more viable route. Personally, I find the gameplay is polished enough that Smash Cops would do very well as a free title.

The graphics deserve top marks. The lighting is extremely realistic, the models are believable, the animation is fluid, and though the physics are a little exagerrated, it suits the gameplay. Fans of the Burnout series will definitely appreciate the scinematic slow-mo crash sequences. The only graphical problem I’ve had is that that after being flipped over, sometimes a robber’s car will disappear and respawn further down the road. This makes sense if the wreck lands in undrivable terrain, but sometimes it doesn’t, and the respawn screws up plans for follow-up attacks.

The audio is decent, but I really wish there was some high-octane racing music while you play. The menu screen has some great music and gets me in the mood to race, but once the game is launched, you’re listening to a police siren and a chopper sound interspersed with the odd crinkle of smashed bumpers.

Overall, Smash Cops is a fast-paced, challenging racing game with polished gameplay and graphics. With a few control tweaks and increased depth for unlockables, I could see myself killing a lot of time with this game. For $2.99, you’ll get your money’s worth so long as losing a few times drives you to steely determination, rather than flipping over to another game.

$2.99 – Buy now

The good

• Excellent graphics
• Polished (though sometimes difficult) gameplay
• Good variety of game modes

The bad

• In-app purchases aren’t compelling
• Limited variety of unlocks
• Controls are often too difficult

The conclusion

Overall, Smash Cops is a fast-paced, challenging racing game with polished gameplay and graphics. With a few control tweaks and increased depth for unlockables, I could see myself killing a lot of time with this game. For $2.99, you’ll get your money’s worth so long as losing a few times drives you to steely determination, rather than flipping over to another game.

For today only, the iMore Store has the OtterBox Reflex Series Case for iPad 2 on sale for only $38.95! Get them before they’re gone!

Get the OtterBox Reflex Series Case for iPad 2 now!

Looking for an iPad 2 case that offers the perfect balance of protection and contemporary styling? The OtterBox Reflex Series Case offers front and back device coverage in a sleek package, preventing scratches and keeping your new iPad 2 clean and safe from drops.

This case has a touch screen shield that doubles as a viewing/typing stand, access to all buttons and controls (including camera lens), plus the simple design makes docking your iPad 2 easy and fast.

The unique audio pathway redirects sound toward you for excellent listening pleasure.

Features:

• Reflex Zones in corners
• Slick exterior
• Easy snap-off access for docking
• Snap-on touch screen shield doubles as a viewing/typing stand
• Unique audio routers direct sound towards you
• Single layer dual density material
• Polycarbonate molded with TPE rubber

 

Best Buy is currently running an online survey asking for its customers views on a potential Apple HDTV. The survey suggests that the Apple iTV television could be available as a 42" 1080p LED Flat Panel set that will run iOS applications, stream movies and deliver other entertainment programs from the internet. The cost could be as much as $1499.00.

Apple finally reinvents what a TV can do,” saying that it’ll run iOS, support iCloud, be controllable from an iPhone or iPad, and have access to Netflix, YouTube, and Flickr — in other words, it’s an Apple TV wrapped in an actual television set, exactly as you’d expect.

We are reasonably sure that Best Buy is just trying to find out if there would be a demand for this type of TV set, rather than potentially leaking any new Apple products. Especially when the same survey also goes on to suggest that the Apple HDTV would include an iSight camera all ready for Skype. If this was a signal of Apple's intent, that camera would surely be ready for FaceTime. It is a bit of a strange move for a big box chain to carry out market research for a product that is currently only at rumor stage.

Source: The Verge

Samsung has aired another of their good-natured iPhone attack ads, which should be an occasion for merriment and ego-deflating good fun. Yet once again the commercial feels like it missed it’s mark. Rather, the whole series of commercials still seem awkwardly in search of a mark. This one stars the latest in Samsung’s broad-range of devices, each separate by a different Galaxy monicker and roughly 0.25-inches of screen size, the Galaxy Note. It’s something that can’t quite make up it’s mind between being a phone and a tablet — I’m not going to call it a phablet — and that’s either the best of both worlds… or the worst. The jury is still out. How big is it? 5.3-inches of HD Super AMOLED big, baby. (Yes, that’s exactly inverse the iPhone’s traditional 3.5-inches.)

It’s also got a stylus.

Now, I’m not religiously opposed to a stylus — I’m an artist by trade and I’ve used several types of stylus on the iPad since it came out. However, a stylus by itself is not a differentiator. It’s what you can do with it that’s a differentiator. It’s all about the software. I’m also not going to deny that, for some things, a bigger screen is not just bigger, it’s better. Hey, I’ve got a 9.7-inch iPad and Steve Jobs spent over an hour in 2010 telling us what that meant in terms of the type of apps it could run.

But Samsung never makes the case for either in their Galaxy Note commercial. They never show off a lick of innovative, compelling software in the whole damn ad. They’re too busy, once again, making fun of iPhone users. (Not iPhones, mind you. iPhone users.)

This time we’re giddily missing the Super Bowl (presumably on the west coast because it’s still light outside) by standing in line for an iPhone launch (which never happens any time near Super Bowl time), and the massive size and pen-ly charm of the Galaxy Note makes us break out into the worst Van Halen-meets-the-Simpsons-style tribute number. Ever.

They’re copying the spirit of the old Get a Mac ads without any of the substance. Shocking, really, given their history.

Samsung couldn’t have used any of those multi-million dollar minutes to show us the advantages of the Galaxy Note having such a big screen? To show us how absolutely killer a stylus makes the mobile experience? They flashed some photos, doodled on the screen, and did the equivalent of a FaceTime call. The motorcycle jump got almost as much screen time as the software.

And that’s disappointing. Google’s Galaxy Nexus commercial showed you can highlight Android hardware and software features in a compelling way. Samsung shows you can mock iPhone users, call us baristas, and convert us to the world’s biggest ass phone just by waving it at us.

The girl in the commercial sums it up best when she says, “I don’t know what to believe anymore.” As much as Samsung bashes the iPhone, they give no reason to believe in the Galaxy Note.

If you want to court iPhone users, don’t do it by making fun of us or insulting our intelligence. Do it by making us jealous of your phone… er… tablet… er… phone.

With the launch of the Mobile Nations Fitness Month odds are you were probably out and about being active and doing things that, unfortunately, led to you missing some great news. Fear not, we know things get in the way, and news can be easy to miss so, let’s check out some of the highlights from the week gone by.

iPhone news

• Is Apple testing Oracle's ZFS file system to make iOS and iCloud storage better, faster, and more resilient?
• Former Apple manager tells how the original iPhone was developed, why it went with Gorilla Glass
• iPhone 4S demand finally satisfied, all models now in stock for next day delivery
• iPhone 5 to launch at WWDC in June, claims analyst

iPad news

• Could Apple release a separate 4G LTE iPad 3 and Phone 5 in select markets?
• Supposed debug leak shows iPad 3 with quad-core A6 chip and LTE
• More rumors of iPad 3 coming in March, but no "strange" event in February

App news

• Manage your Sprint account on your iPhone with Sprint Mobile Zone
• Angry Birds boss doesn't see app piracy as a problem
• Pad & Quill brings stylish notes to your iPhone and iPad
• iMovie vs Avid Studio: iPad video editing app shootout

Jailbreak news

• How to tell if your iPhone 3GS has an older or newer bootrom [jailbreak tip]
• Add customization options to 'slide to unlock' text with Slider Pro [Jailbreak]
• BiteSMS vs Messages+ for iOS 5: which should you use?
• Add launch preferences to Phone.app with StartDial for iPhone [jailbreak]
• Hands-on with Zephyr for the iPhone and iPod Touch [Jailbreak Apps]

Accessory news

• Hands on with the Crimson cases, sticker skins, and edgings for iPhone
• Case-Mate POP! Case with Stand for iPad 2 review [Giveaway]
• Incipio Hive Honeycomb dermaSHOT Silicone Case for iPad 2 review [Giveaway]
• Griffin Crayola Trace & Draw for iPad 2 review [Giveaway]
• OverBoard waterproof case for iPad review [Giveaway]