The Fair Labor Association has just wrapped up its independent audit, commissioned by Apple, of the working conditions at Foxconn. After interviewing over 35,000 workers from three different factories, the FLA said their “nearly month-long investigation revealed serious and pressing noncompliances with FLA's Workplace Code of Conduct, as well as Chinese labor law.” Sounds serious, right? Well, to be fair, the above graph represents the degree to which the Foxconn factories are meeting FLA and standards of national law, and as the FLA had reported earlier, Apple’s factories aren’t doing particularly bad. The FLA established four major areas where Foxconn needed to improve: working hours, health and safety, industrial relations and worker integration, and compensation and social security insurance.

First, average weekly work hours are beyond the legal limits across all factories, and some employees worked 7 days straight, despite the legal requirement to have at least a single 24-hour break. Foxconn promised to be compliant as of July 1… 2013. Apparently they need to hire more people in order to make up for the hours, which lines up with previous reports of a Foxconn hiring spree.

Secondly, workers felt insecure, especially after that explosion caused by aluminum dust last spring. While Foxconn made safety procedure changes following the incident, they’ve promised to keep a sharper eye on safety infractions; instead of just keeping records of incidents when work has stopped, they’re now going to keep tabs on every employee injury.

Thirdly, Foxconn laborers have no say in who is appointed to representative committees, which means they’re more or less puppets to the agendas of managers.  To fix that, Foxconn is going to introduce an election process, and to improve their sense of empowerment, Foxconn is going to give a copy of their Collective Bargaining Agreement, and offer union information during orientation of new employees.

Lastly, Foxconn has been illegally putting interns to work for shifts longer than 8 hours, and no more than 5 days a week. As it turns out, Foxconn has had them working night shifts and overtime. Also, 14% of workers are only paid unscheduled overtime by the half hour, so they don’t get anything for working 29 minutes. Foxconn promises that they’ll knock that down to 15 minutes. Insurance is also an issue. 99% of the workers in two factories are migrants, but since insurance is doled out on a provincial basis, they can’t collect if they ever go hom. Foxconn is going to look into private alternatives.

While there’s some stuff here that needs to be fixed, none of it sounds insurmountable. Even though it sounds like they’re working hard, only 17.7% of respondents said they worked too much, while 33.8% actually wanted to work more. As for the age of workers, the FLA found the average to be around 23, and that the percentage of those aged 16 to 18 to be between 3.6% and 5.5%, depending on the factory.

In any case, it’s really good to see a proper report like this, even compared to Nightline’s piece. Getting into specific numbers and specific processes gives us a much clearer idea of how Apple is churning out millions of iPhones and iPads. Hopefully this level of scrutiny sets a new bar for other electronics manufacturers in China.  It’s good that Apple is being proactive in getting the FLA involved, but it’s hard to tell if they’re getting a little too involved… Would this report have been a little more harsh if Apple wasn’t paying them dues to be in the association?

The FLA will be following up on this investigation to make sure the changes are implemented. You can find the FLA’s full report, complete with appendices over here. It’s definitely worth a gander.

Georgia, Seth, and Rene quickly cover the fallout of Chinese factory stories being faked, Apple’s cash balance announcement, and the week’s headlines, then dive deep into the 2012 iPad review, covering technology and experience. This is iPhone & iPad Live!

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Meta

• The new iPad (2012) review
• The new iPad (2012) round-table
• The new iPad (2012) community report card

Spotlight

• New iPhone (iPhone 5,1) coming fall 2012 with LTE, similar sized screen
• The iPad mini

News

• New iPad owners in Australia scorned by false 4G LTE advertising offered refund
• Apple debunks iPad overcharging, explains how charging works
• How's the battery life on your new iPad?

Apps

• Shannon Tweed talks to iMore about Attack of the Groupies, her new tower defense game for iPhone and iPad
• Angry Birds Space
• Draw Something review: The best way to show bad art
• How to use iPhoto to darken and add drama to your iPhone photography
• Catch up on your reading with beautiful fonts and Retina graphics with Instapaper for iPhone and iPad

Accessories

• SGP Kuel H10 stylus pen review (or: How I win at Draw Something)

New iPad review

Hosts

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

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com, or leave a comment on the website when the show goes live.

We’re here every Wednesday night at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 2am GMT at www.imore.com/live

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

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

More often than not, email just simply "works" on your iPad. You input your account information when you setup the iPad and email is received flawlessly.  Occasionally, however, problems do arise and need to be fixed.

Sometimes, it is an issue with the email server, sometimes it is a connectivity issue and sometimes you are just missing a key piece of information in the account setup.

Usually, the solution is simple like a wrong password or switch. We will try to walk you through potential problems and their fixes.

The iPad can't get your mail

Sometimes, you will start up the Mail app and receive an error message that your mail could not be retrieved.  If this happens to you, the first thing to do is to make sure you are connected in some way to the internet.

Look on your home screen for the WiFi logo and/or the 3G/4G indicator or LTE indicator, depending on what type of connection you’re using. If you do not see either of these then:

1. Go to your Settings app
2. Touch Wi-Fi (for Wi-Fi only iPads) and make sure that Wi-Fi is ON
   1. Then, make sure that there is a check mark next to an available Wi-Fi network.
   2. If there is no checkmark, touch an available Wi-Fi network and "join" the network.
   3. Input a passcode if prompted.
   4. On 4G iPads, touch Settings and then Cellular Data
      1. Touch View Account and make sure that your login information is correct

If you are still having trouble getting email or getting an error message, it is time to go to the actual email settings for the account in question.

1. Touch the Settings icon
2. Touch the Mail, Contacts and Calendars tab
3. Touch the specific email account that is giving you trouble.
4. Touch the Account tab on the next screen.
5. Verify that the Email and Password fields are correct. It is sometimes easiest to simply retype them and see if in the verification process this fixes the problem.

 

When you re-input your Email and Password, you should either see the word "Verifying" at the top and then, hopefully, see some checkmarks saying that the account is working.  If you get another error message or if the screen seems to hang on "Verifying" you will  need to perform the additional steps.

1. Go to the Mail, Contacts, Calendar tab as you did above.
2. Touch the Account that is giving you trouble.
3. Make sure that your account is listed as ON if it is a POP 3 account (like Comcast)
4. Make sure that Mail is turned on in IMAP accounts (like Google.)
5. If you still can't get mail – try to Delete the Account and then re-set up
   1. If the account is a Google or other IMAP account, all your messages are saved on the server and they will be reloaded when the account is set up.
   2. After re-setting up the account, make sure that you see the "Verified" check marks during set up and you should be fine.

 

The iPad can't send your mail

 

Sometimes, your iPad will receive mail fine, but it won't send mail.  This is a different kind of problem that involves the SMTP – or outgoing Mail server. To try to fix this issue, do the following:

1. Touch the Mail, Contacts, Calendars tab as you did above.
2. Touch the Account that is having trouble sending mail.
3. Touch the tab that says SMTP under Outgoing Mail Server.
4. Make sure that the primary mail server associated with the email account in question is turned On
5. If it is turned Off, touch the tab that says Off and turn the switch to On.
6. If there are other mail servers listed, you can always try to turn one of them On and retry sending your mail.  Usually, if mail is unsuccessful in sending from one server, it tries the other listed servers.
7. If the serer is On and you still have trouble, touch the Primary Server listed and see if in the greyed out field you can see that there is a Host Name, User Name and Password listed. We will show you how to adjust these in the next section.

 

If you have verified that your account is set up and your SMTP server is On and you still can't send mail – then we need to dive into the Advanced settings to see if there are any more adjustments to be made.

1. Touch the Account from the Mail, Contacts, Calendars tab as you did earlier.
2. Touch the Account tab and then touch the Advanced tab under the SMTP tab.
3. If the Use SSL switch is OFF, turn it ON
   1. Consequently, if it is ON, try turning it OFF
   2. Touch the Authentication tab and set it to Password
   3. Look at the number next to Server Port
      1. For Gmail, this is usually set to 993
      2. For Comcast and other POP email accounts, this is often set to 110
      3. Other servers use 995 or 587 – check with your ISP if you are not sure.
      4. For iCloud accounts, you won't even see this listed.
      5. Make sure that the S/MIME switch is set to OFF. This is for Secure/Multi-Purpose Internet Mail extensions used by government agencies and some high tech companies. Chances are, that if you need this to be ON you know what it is and that you need it – most of us don't.

 

Once you make changes to your settings, touch the Done button and you should be all set to go. Go back to your Mail app and try to fetch your email and then try to send a new one. Hopefully, you will be fixed and working.

If you still have trouble sending or receiving email, it is possible that either the port settings or one of the other advanced settings needs to be adjusted according to the settings for your ISP.

Source: Motorola Global

Did this solve your problems? Are you still struggling with email settings? Check out out this forum thread for even more advice.

If your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS isn’t vibrating even when the vibration setting is on, the vibrator assembly motor may have burnt out. Lucky, it’s a quick and easy DIY repair that most users can handle on their own. Here’s how.

Symptoms

• Your phone never vibrates even if vibrate is on in Settings
• Even if you flip your phone from vibrate to loud, you never get any feedback from the vibrate function

Disclaimer: As with any repair, iMore nor PXLFIX can be held responsible for any damage you may do to your device. It's also worth considering that opening up your device to perform any repair or modification can and will void your Apple warranty. If you don't feel comfortable opening your device, don't. Use extreme care and caution when performing a repair on any device.

What you need for a DIY vibrator assembly repair

PXLFIX recommends using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs.

• A sad iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS
• A replacement vibrator assembly – iPhone 3G & 3GS vibrator assembly – The part is the same for both
• A #00 Phillips screwdriver
• A suction cup
• A plastic pry tool or spudger

This repair will be performed in exactly the same manner regardless whether you have an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS.

Power off your iPhone

Before performing any repair or removing any screws or parts, always power off your device.

Remove the dock connector screws

Using your #00 Phillips screwdriver, remove the 2 screws located on each side of the dock connector.

Remove the digitizer & LCD assembly

This part can be a bit tricky so please do this with extreme care so you don’t tear any cables during the process.

The easiest way to remove the digitizer assembly is by using a suction cup.

1. Position the suction cup on the screen directly above the home button.
2. Using your other hand, hold down the frame while gently pulling up on the suction cup.
3. The goal is to get the bottom of the digitizer loose. Do not pull directly up. There are 3 cables attached in the top right of your iPhone. You do not want to tear these. Just pull up until the bottom of the assembly pops out.
4. After you have the bottom up you can remove the suction cup.

Remove the cables that attach the digitizer assembly to the logic board:

Once you have the bottom of your digitizer assembly popped up we can remove the cables attaching it to the logic board.

1. Gently lift up your digitizer enough to have a clear view of the 3 cables in the top right of your iPhone.
2. With your plastic spudger or pry tool, you’ll need to pry up the first two cables that attach the digitizer and LCD. They should be labeled with orange stickers numbered 1 and 2. Simply pop them off the logic board gently.

3. Underneath these cables you’ll see one other labeled as cable 3. This one is a bit trickier as it is clipped down. You’ll need to gently pop up the clasp holding it into the fastener. It is a tiny white clip. Simply pop it upwards and the number 3 cable should then slide right out.
4. Remove the digitizer & LCD assembly and set it aside.

Remove your SIM card

Using your SIM tool or a paperclip, either works, remove your SIM card and tray from your device.

Unclip cables from the logic board

1. Towards the top left of the logic board, use your pry tool to pop up the two cables labeled 5 and 6.

2. Towards the bottom of the logic board, 3G owners will only see one cable to the left labeled 4. 3GS users will see two cables (one on each side of the dock connector) labeled 4 and 7. 3G users will just pop up the number 4 cable while 3GS owners will need to pop up both the number 4 and 7 cables.

Remove your logic board

1. Remove the 8 screws outlined in the video that hold the logic board in place. One of the screws is under a Do not remove sticker at the bottom right by the dock connector. Obviously you’ll have to remove the sticker to get to it.

2. Make sure you place the screws in an order you will remember. They are different sizes in some instances so you’ll need to make sure you put them back in the correct order.

3. Notice the screw holding the camera in place has a metal bracket underneath it. Just take care not to lose this as you’ll need to put it back during reassembly.

4. Gently pop your camera up with your spudger or pry tool. Do not completely remove it. Just flip it up out of the opening so it will come out with the logic board.

5. Insert your pry tool in the space between the dock connector and logic board and gently pry upward to loosen the logic board.
6. Gently grab the bottom of the logic board and slide it out downwards to remove it.

Replace the vibrator assembly

The vibrator assembly is located on the right hand middle side of your iPhone. We will remove the old one now and put in the new one.

1. Remove the two screws holding the vibrator assembly in place.
2. Gently lift the old vibrator assembly out of your device.
3. Line up the new vibrator assembly and screw it down.

Reassemble your iPhone

In order to reassemble your iPhone, just follow these directions in exact opposite order or watch the video above, which includes reassembly instructions.

And …done!

Now that your phone is complete re-assembled you can power it back on to test the vibrator functionality. If all went as planned, your phone should be back to working order. If you do run into any problems, let us know or check out our forums below where members will be more than willing to lend a hand.

For questions or to inquire about mail-in repairs through PXLFIX, please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or e-mail us directly! Of course, you can like us and follow us just because you think we’re cool too!

Additional Resources:

• How to replace a GSM iPhone 4 vibrator assembly
• Even more DIY repairs and mods
• iMore DIY & repair forums

Apple CEO Tim Cook is visiting China, having recently toured Foxconn facilities, but so far his most interesting meeting has been with Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang. Li committed to improving intellectual property protection for international companies like Apple, who is currently duking it out with a local LCD vendor over the iPad trademark. The Vice Premier said specifically:

To be more open to the outside is a condition for China to transform its economic development, expand domestic demands and conduct technological innovation.

He also called on foreign companies to care for Chinese workers, which has been a concern for Apple at Foxconn for awhile now, but has become a big subject of public attention lately. Cook promised to keep working honestly within Chinese law, and maintain a healthy level of cooperation with the locals. Li would like to see international companies partnering with Chinese ones for product development, and said the government aims to strengthen emerging industries and innovation.

Apple has invested a ton of money into Foxconn, and by association, the Chinese economy; it’s expected that they’re also on good terms with the government, and that they’ll keep up those relations to make sure iPhone and iPad production continues unabated. That said, I can’t help but wonder who needs who more as far as economics go: China for the money Apple’s bringing in, or Apple for China’s supply chain?

Source: Xinhua

If you’re looking to turn your iPad into a blank slate that you can easily, beautifully be filled with anything from a sketch to a flow-chart, a list to an diagram, get Paper and get creating.

Paper by 53 for iPad is exactly what the name implies, a fresh canvas ready and waiting for your ideas, inspiration, and art. While hand drawing and handwriting note-taking apps are nothing new to the iPad or App Store, Paper feels qualitatively different in kind. It has a focus, a flow, a humanity, and a technology about it that somehow come together to create one of the most natural creative experience I’ve had on the iPad to date.

When you launch Paper you’re greeted with a series of beautifully rendered books. (They look so good they almost overcome the shadows behind them not falling at a precise 90 degree angle. Almost.) There are three pre-populated for you: Sketches, Ideas, and Making Paper. Sketches and Ideas are empty and waiting for you to fill them with wonders of your own devising. Making Paper is pre-filled with samples of what those creations can involve: pretty much anything you could whiteboard, scribble, or sketch.

Tap or pinch open a book and it unfolds in front of you into a browsing and sharing mode. You can quickly leaf through the pages, add or delete pages, or share pages via Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, or Email. There’s no save to Camera Roll, unfortunately, but you can take screenshots of the pages to work around that.

To start creating, tap it or pinch on an open book and the page fills the screen and becomes editable. That’s it. There’s no user interface unless you call it up or leave the page. It’s just you and the glowing electronic paper.

To leave a page, pinch it closed. To move between pages, swipe from one side to other in the direction you wish to go. (This has been problematic for me, often resulting in unintentional lines being drawn instead of pages being flipped.) To bring up the tools, swipe up from the bottom up. To close the tools, touch them and swipe back down.

Paper comes with two free tools: Draw (an ink fountain pen) and Erase. Additional tools are available for $1.99 each via in-app purchase and include Sketch (a pencil), Outline (a marker), Write (a pen), and Color (a water-esque brush).

Each tool does pretty much what you’d expect them to do. Which is a remarkable achievement. Almost immediately I was able to break down motion lines and poses and build up structures and forms with the sketch pencil tool, and it felt right in a way no other iPad app has ever felt. Likewise inking with the draw fountain pen tool was great. Pages even simulates stroke width. The accuracy was terrific, better than any other app I’ve used. The line just went where I expected it to go and looked the way I expected it to look.

Color was a different story. It might simply be my lack of skill with water colors, though I’ve used them quite a bit in the distant past. I immediately missed controls I’ve come to depend on in Photoshop — brush size, opacity, and custom colors. I immediately lost the incredible connection the other tools had given me. Without real world palettes and water to mix and thin and perfect my media before applying it to the page, and no digital controls, it just didn’t click. Still, it seems like something that can be figured out.

Also requiring some figuring out is the undo/redo metaphor. You touch two fingers and trace a counter-clockwise circle to “rewind” actions and a clockwise circle to “replay” (though still labeled as “rewind”) them. It… takes some getting used to. While the idea is like a dial, there’s no real delineation between the steps you’re undoing or redoing, and the control doesn’t feel particularly fine grained. So, I was constantly undoing or redoing not enough or too much. A jog shuttle isn’t truly useful unless it has those little notches to give you precise feedback for each frame or step.

There are some other challenges to be overcome as well. You can’t, for example, draw an upward line from the bottom of the screen because that brings up the tool selector (you have to use downward lines). You can’t quickly fill in large areas of color with the marker because the tip is unchangeably small. But for every gripe there are a hundred smiles to be had simply because Paper truly nails the look and feel of sketching and inking.

Neither Paper nor the iPad will ever be able to match the texture of a real sketchbook, the smell of graphite or ink or whatever the chemicals are that make erasers smell the way they do. It can’t get paint or marker on your hands (or nose), or drip water down your canvas or onto your foot. It’s not real. But it’s really, really good, and the advantages Paper and the iPad have over traditional media make them a better choice for many tasks.

Note: Paper by 53 looks absolutely stunning on the new iPad Retina display but it works on all generations of iPad.

Paper for the iPad from FiftyThree on Vimeo.

The good

• Excellent free-hand creative tool
• Terrific natural media pens, pencils, brushes, and markers
• Elegant, out-of-your-way, user interface

The bad

• No control over tools, colors
• Undo mechanic can be unwieldy

Conclusion

There are better, more specific drawing and painting apps in the App Store, there are better, more optimized note-taking apps. There are apps that let you annotate PDFs or mind-map ideas in ways Paper simply doesn’t. Yet, through thoughtful interface and natural feeling tools, Paper achieves something great.

It was late at night when I downloaded Paper and I had so much fun I ended up staying up far longer than I should have. I used it mainly with my finger. A stylus, however, is even better. I’ve drawn with pencil and pen and paint since I was a child, so the stylus just seems to fit. It gets your hand out of the way and allows a greater range of stroke and better control of angle. If the next-generation Bluetooth 4.0 styli deliver on the promises of pressure sensitivity, wrist rejection, etc. we could really, finally have a really, really good sketching experience on the iPad.

If you’re looking to turn your iPad into a blank slate that you can easily, beautifully fill with anything from a sketch to a flow-chart, a list to an diagram, get Paper and get creating.

Already picked up Paper for iPad? Jump into the iPad app forum and show us your creations!

Free with in-app purchases – Download now

More: The Verge has an interesting interview up with Paper by 53′s developer, Georg Petschnigg.

Nielsen has wrapped up their latest market research data, and in the three months leading up to February, 43% of U.S. smartphone buyers got an iPhone. By comparison, 48% bought an Android phone, and 5% picked up a BlackBerry. Nielsen has also concluded that smartphone penetration in the U.S. has reached 49.7%, nearly overtaking feature phones. At the same time last year, smartphone penetration was still at 36%. Woo, progress.

I would be curious to see these kinds of figures for other major international markets. I can only imagine that feature phones are still huge in India, and most Japanese “feature” phones have specs comparable to our smartphones. At least for Android handsets, cost is becoming less of a barrier in emerging markets, but I have a hard time imagining Apple offering an affordable entry-level iPhone to displace feature phone usage.

Quick show of hands – how many of you still have friends with feature phones? Have you tried convincing them to upgrade? Why are they holding out? And then, just for fun, jump into our forums and let us know what phone you had before making the switch to iPhone.

Source: Nielsen

For today only the iMore iPhone accessory store has the SwitchEasy Colors case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 for only $9.95! That’s a steep 34% off! Get them before they’re gone!

• Shop SwitchEasy Colors case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 now!

The iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 Colors case from SwitchEasy is a thin silicone case that features a hard resin coated home button and easy access to your device’s camera and ports.

The Colors case is one of the first full covered cases on the market. In addition to the traditional protectors, 2 color co-ordinated 3.5mm jack protectors are included for users just wanting to utilize their device as a plain phone.

With Colors, dust and grime are problems for the past.

Features:

• Hard Resin Coated Home Button
• Specifically for iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4
• (2) 3.5mm headphone jack covers
• Variety of colors
• Protective silicone case

Last month, Apple finally concluded the class-action lawsuit surrounding the iPhone 4′s reception issues, and today those affected can now start the process of cashing in. A simple, dedicated website outlines qualification criteria, provides claim forms, and answers a variety of FAQs.

Basically, if you ever owned an iPhone 4 and you live in the U.S., and you weren’t interested in the free bumper Apple was offering, you can get $15 instead — even if you aren’t still using an iPhone 4. When can you get the cash? Well, there’s going to be a hearing on July 13 to approve this settlement, which may see appeals which could last over a year. At that rate, I would just take the free bumper, as detailed in Apple’s support knowledgebase.

The antennagate debacle was caused by a flaw in the iPhone 4′s external antenna design; basically, when you bridged two sections of it when holding the phone in a fairly natural way while in a low-coverage zone, your signal would drop like a rock. While the issue caused a lot of bad press, the actual instances and real inconveniences of the phenomenon were sparse, and didn’t put a dent in iPhone 4 sales. Still, that didn’t stop Consumer Reports from withholding their recommendation of the phone, despite it being the best thing on the smartphone market at the time.

Any iPhone 4 owners in the house that were affected by antennagate and didn’t bother getting the free bumper? Here’s the link you need to visit, below.

Source: iPhone 4 settlement via CNET

I came across Joining Hands when browsing through the “Great apps for the new iPad” section of the App Store because I was hoping to find some great apps that support the new iPad‘s Retina display. I’m happy I decided to download this little game. It’s a cute and fun puzzle game that’s both easy to understand and to play.

The story behind the game is that the little creatures, called Peablins, that you encounter in the Whispering Woods need your help grouping them up so that they’re all holding hands. You see, they believe that the only way the Boogyman won’t take you is if you’re holding hands with a friend.

So that’s your goal, make sure every hand of every Peablin is joined with the hand of another Peablin. There are different types of Peablins, though. For example, the common Peablin can have anywhere from 1 to 3 hands and just needs to be in a hexagon next to another Peablin to join hands — the hands will automatically move the correct position. The Brufflin has two inflexible hands, but can be rotated by tapping. The Gooblin doesn’t have hands, only tentacles, and can only be joined by other Gooblins. There’s three other types of Peablins that I haven’t discovered yet.

When the Peablins don’t have all their hands joined, they looks sad and scared. When all their hands are paired up with another Peablin, they light up and get happy. It’s actually pretty cute.

In addition to the goal of joining all the Peablins’ hands, each level has one or more stars placed somewhere on the hexagonal board giving you the additional challenge of placing one of your Peablins on the hexagon with a star. Sometimes you may also find several hearts on a cell. This is called a “Comfort Zone” and any Peablin placed in a Comfort Zone will be happy and unafraid of the Boogyman even if all of his hands aren’t joined with other Peablins.

I’ve found Joining Hands to be a very relaxing game. It’s definitely a puzzle game, but not a super challenging one. For a child, though, it could be very challenging. The levels do get more difficult as you progress and are introduced to new Peablins.

The Good

• Easy to learn
• Great for kids
• Universal for iPhone and iPad
• Retina graphics looks awesome on the new iPad

The Bad

• Takes a while to become challenging

The Conclusion

Joining Hands is a great casual puzzle game that is more relaxing than it is challenging. I think older kids will find it to be acceptably challenging, though, making it a great game to add to the family iPad.

$2.99 – Download Now

The Glam Sparkle case for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S is just the latest in a long line of beautiful, shiny cases from Case-Mate. They sent this back from CES 2012 for me to look at and what can I say, they know my weakness and they exploit it well! From the latest brushed aluminum Barely-There to my trusty old Chrome case, Case-Mate has never failed to trap me with their sparkling wares.

And the Glam Sparkle case for iPhone really does sparkle, as the name so well implies! It comes in silver, gold, green, and pink, and it hast a multifaceted backplate that literally twinkles and glitters as it catches the light at different angles. It’s not rough to the touch, however, as the sparkles are protected by a tough layer of lacquer that’s finished silky smooth.

Like all of Case-Mate’s recent Barely-There cases, the Glam Sparkle adds almost no bulk and all the cutouts are generous so you won’t have any trouble fitting your favorite 3.5mm headphones or using any dock cable, even the chunkier media or car kit plugs. The edges don’t come up over the bezel, which is great for people like me who don’t want swiping interrupted, but no so great if you’re looking for some protection when you put your iPhone on a table face down.

Speaking of protection, what you give up in bulk you also give up in protection. This is no tank case! It will protect your precious iPhone from scratches and scuffs to the side and back, but it probably won’t help you much in the event of serious impact damage.

If all you want to do is make your iPhone look absolutely fabulous, however, the Case-Mate Glam Sparkle has you covered.

My only worry is, after chrome, brushed metal, and sparkles, how can Case-Mate top this level of shine in the next model?

The good

• Incredibly sparkly, thin, and pretty
• Large cutouts make it easy to use any headphones or dock cables
• Minimal bulk

The bad

• Doesn’t provide a super high amount of protection
• Not everyone can pull off this level of sparkly!

The conclusion

Case-Mate had me at shiny. Need I say more? Just when I think I have a case that’s as shiny as it gets, Case-Mate comes up with something shinier still. If you’re a fan of glitter and glamor, and want your iPhone to make as shiny a statement as possible, this case is for you!

$18.11+ – Buy now

Apple today released iTunes 10.6.1, a bug-fix update that addresses a number of irksome issues, including the problem with TV shows on Apple TV. Here’s the rundown.

iTunes 10.6.1 provides a number of improvements, including:

• Fixes several issues that may cause iTunes to unexpectedly quit while playing videos, changing artwork size in Grid view, and syncing photos to devices.
• Addresses an issue where some iTunes interface elements are incorrectly described by VoiceOver and WindowEyes.
• Fixes a problem where iTunes may become unresponsive while syncing iPod nano or iPod shuffle.
• Resolves an ordering problem while browsing TV episodes in your iTunes library on Apple TV.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

You can grab it now via Software Update. When you do, let us know how it works for you and, if you were having any issues, whether it fixed them.

If you need any help updating, or want to discuss the contents of the update in greater depth, jump on into our iTunes forum.

Inspired by the Microsoft Courier project, Taposé has great potential but the usability just isn’t there yet.

The Microsoft Courier project was an original take on tablets but never got out of the concept video stage before Steve Ballmer decided to kill it in favor of Windows 8. Undaunted, a couple of developers from Seattle who were fans of the project hooked up with former Courier lead, J. Allard, and raised enough enough money on Kickstarter to create a Courier-like experience on the iPad. Namely, Taposé.

The promo video for Taposé was exciting. It showed a lot of what made the Courier so novel and interesting. It showed, on an iPad, a two-paned UI, and dragging and dropping content from one pane, say a webpage or maps, into the journal contained in the other pane that contained your journal. Unfortunately, the reality of the app doesn’t match the aspiration of the video.

I’ll preface all of this by saying the the idea behind Taposé is fabulous. The video, although a bit misleading, was fantastic. Everything about the concept of Taposé is brilliant, but the execution to date was disappointingly poor.

First of all, the tutorial that you’re initially presented with, for lack of a better word, sucks. This app is jam packed with different UI elements and features, but the tutorial doesn’t let you actually use any of the important ones while reading through it. Instead, you must ingest all this information without trying it out along the way. For hands-on learners like me, it was a nightmare and I finished the tutorial learning very little.

I was still positive at this point, though, thinking that, sure, the tutorial needs a little work, but I can still explore around and figure things out on my own. I quickly figured out that the tutorial was not Taposé’s only flaw. The app is very sluggish and somewhat confusing to navigate around — and this is on a brand new iPad, mind you. I don’t want to think about how it performs on a first generation iPad.

Sluggishness aside, Taposé does work, sort of, and its cool feature is that it lets you have two panels — one with your working journal, and the other with a web browser, maps, contacts, or calculator.

To open and close the left panel, simply slide the circle at the bottom of the toolbar left and right. Swiping up and down above the circle will give you the options for opening a journal, web browser, maps, contacts, or calculator in your panels. But don’t you dare try swiping up and down on the circle – it’ll just leave you frustrated at Taposé’s lack of response.

If you have a website open in one of your panels, you can copy the image or webclip to your clipboard to add to your journal. How to paste it into your journal from your clipboard? I have no idea. Perhaps it’s in that tutorial I don’t remember anything from. However, you can tap the photo icon button next to the “Copy image to Clip Board” button and drag the created webclip to the toolbar which can then be dragged to your journal. Don’t expect to get precise with how your webclips appear, though. Think of it as a fun guessing game — you zoom into the webpage and see if Taposé creates the image you expected!

Maps was a little confusing to learn how to use as well.. The trick is that you don’t get to zoom into (or out of) a specific area that can be shared with your journal, but you share either your current location or pinned locations. The resulting clips actually look pretty cool on the journal. Contacts look great as well. The calculator is convenient so that you don’t have to open a separate calculator app to perform a calculation. Calculations can’t be shared, though. You must type or handwrite the results.

Speaking of handwriting, the quality of the handwriting is nothing to brag about and could use a lot of work. Taposé does include a zoom tool to make your handwriting smaller which is great. Don’t you dare make a mistake, though, because while zoomed in, there’s no way to undo or erase. This reminds me about the unintuitive placement of the undo button. Despite the ample space in the top toolbar (or even above the pen cup icon in the left toolbar) for an undo button, you must actually tap the page number icon to find it. This is where you’ll also find the search tool, index, sharing options, paper type, and wrist guard.

Some of the other features of Taposé include adding text or sticky notes, but don’t add them in the area that the keyboard pops up over if you want to see what you’re typing. That’s right, you can’t scroll down your journal to see the bottom of the page when the keyboard is active.

The last thing I’m going to mention is that when trying to make an interesting looking screenshot to share with you, I was using the zoom tool to handwrite notes for you to see. At some point, the zoom tool stopped working and the area I was supposed to write in just turned gray. I tried force closing the app and relaunching it, but the problem persisted.

This is about the time I gave up and closed the app for good.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention this gem I discovered (I cropped the screenshot so that you can read the popup).

Now look at the screenshot again, but pay attention to the icons at the bottom.

The Good

• Great concept

The Bad

• Sluggish
• “Tutorial” doesn’t let you try things as you read through it
• Can’t undo while using zoom tool
• Just confusing and unintuitive, in general

The Conclusion

Taposé has the potential of being a really awesome app, but it’s nowhere near there, yet. This is not an app that’s ready for a public release, so unless you like the beta-testing experience, I recommend waiting for an acceptable update before picking this one up.

Check out the video below to see the potential of Taposé and what I hope to see it become.

$2.99 – (Don’t) Download Now