The Adonit Jot Touch is one of the first of a new generation of stylus pens for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad that uses Bluetooth technology in addition to traditional capacitance to allow for pressure sensitivity and a wider artistic range.

So, while the Adonit Jot Touch looks like the Adonit Jot Pro, including the removable cap, the smooth, elgantly machined body, and the thin, hard writing tip capped by a plastic, capacitive disk, a lot has changed on the inside.

Firstly, it needs to be charged. Yes, the Adonit Jot Pro has a battery! It also comes with a USB charging dongle that's a lot more interesting than most -- it's magnetic. Just plug it into your MacBook or any other USB port, or into an AC adapter, and drop the base of the Jot Touch down no top of it, and the magnets will snap it into place, and it'll start charging.

There are two obvious buttons on the side of the Jot Touch, similar to the kind you'd find on a Wacom stylus. Between them is the stealthy power and pairing button. Hold down on it for a few seconds to turn the Jot Touch on or off, and hold down on it for a good long while to put the Jot Touch into pairing mode. (You can tell when you've succeeded because the LED indicator on the side will flash between green and red.)

On you iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, go to Settings > Bluetooth, tap on the Jot Touch, enter 0000 as you PIN, 90s-style, and you're good to go. (It would be even better and faster if the Jot Touch didn't require the PIN...)

I'm not going to review the actual capacitive quality of the Jot Touch here, because in my non-Bluetooth tests it was every bit as good as the Jot Pro, if not even smoother. So if you're interested in how it works as a regular old stylus, check out our Jot Pro review. Now on with the Bluetooth!

Since iOS doesn't official support pressure sensitive stylus pens, Adonit incorporated everything app makers need into their own SDK. That means that, while the Jot Touch will work just like any other stylus with the iOS interface and regular apps, if developers incorporate the SDK, it'll work with pressure sensitive magic. (Adonit assures us it's science, not magic, but it'll seem like magic the first time you use it.)

Over Bluetooth, the Jot Touch relays pressure information to the app, including apps like Procreate, Sketchbook, Clibe, PDF Pen, and more. They translate it into different sizes and opacities of "ink" or "paint" dispersal. So the harder you press, the more you get, from a thin, feint line to a thick, full brush stroke.

I tried it out for both drawing and calligraphy and it worked delightfully well, if not exactly. A light stroke produced a nice, small, light line. A hard stroke produced a big, bold blotch. Where I had some trouble was in between. I couldn't get a smooth, steady gradation from light to heavy. Instead, the Jot Touch seemed to start slow, then burst big. It might take more getting used to, but as someone who spent most of his life with pencils, pens, and paintbrushes in hand, I can't help but hope for finer grain pressure sensitivity in the future.

A future that, thanks to products like the Jot Touch, looks closer at hand than ever before.

The good

• Excellent stylus in general
• Provides pressure sensitivity to compatible apps

The bad

• Pressure sensitivity isn't perfectly smooth yet

The bottom line

If you grew up with writing and drawing tools clutched in your hand like I did, and if you spent years working with a Wacom or similar pressure-sensitive stylus like I did, you've always wanted that type of functionality on your iPhone or iPad.

Now we have our first taste of it. It's bleeding edge, to be sure, and needs more apps to include support for it, but I'm buying one now because, dammit, because I want to be part of the future.

If you don't, hey, check out any of the other stylus pens we've reviewed

$99 - Buy now

If you're a small business and you use Square to take payments on your iPhone or iPad, you now have a new option to pay a flat $275 a month as opposed to being charge 2.75% per swipe. Depending on how many credit card sales you process a month, it may be a better deal.

Square's new $275 per month flat fee is good for up to $250,000 in transactions a year and will work on any purchase under $400. If you typically run smaller transactions and do over $10,000 in credit card transactions a month, it's probably a better deal than the standard 2.75% fee per swipe they currently offer.

If you run a transaction that goes over the $400 maximum or you exceed the $250,000 a year limit you'll just be charged the 2.75% per transaction as you already pay now. For some small businesses this may be a good deal but if you process less than $10,000 in sales a month or right around there, you're probably better off being charged per swipe. If you run a card manually you'll still be charged the standard 3.5% fee plus 15 cents but it won't count towards your yearly limit of $250,000.

Square may have been one of the first mobile card payment services to really cater to small businesses but other services such as Intuit GoPayment have quickly caught up and offer rates that are just as competitive. If you already use QuickBooks you can take mobile payments on a pay per swipe rate of 2.7% which is a little less than Square's current single swipe rate. You can also choose to pay $12.95 per month with Intuit and only be charged a 1.7% fee instead. For businesses that run quite a bit less than $10,000 a month in credit card transactions it becomes harder to choose a payment option.

Given Square's recent deal with Starbucks you have to wonder if Square's new flat fee offering is aimed at catering to medium to larger sized businesses. Either way it's nice to see that Square doesn't seem to have any plans to force smaller businesses on pay per month plans.

Apple has apologized for recent Apple Store staffing screw-ups that saw one of the most laudable retail operations in the world cut and confuse staff and threaten a reputation that, until now, has been second-to-none. Stories about the cuts and confusion in Apple Retail began to spread last week, and while Apple is denying reports about layoffs, they are admitting to the incredibly poor judgement when it comes to Apple Retail staffing general:

In a communication with store leadership teams, senior vice president of retail, John Browett, who took the reins of Apple's retail stores in April, said that the company had been trying a new staffing formula for its retail stores, leading some employees to see their hourly shifts cut and retail locations to be understaffed. This happened for a few weeks before the company decided to revert to its older system, hoping to rectify the problem.

He instructed leadership teams to tell employees, "We messed up," according to two people who were aware of the communication, which also stressed that while shift schedules were affected, no one was laid off. He also wanted employees to know that it was hiring new staff, these people said.

Apple acknowledged the retail staffing changes. "Making these changes was a mistake and the changes are being reversed," said Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman. "Our employees are our most important asset and the ones who provide the world-class service our customers deserve."

Browett replaced longtime Apple Store mastermind, former SVP Ron Johnson who left to run JC Penny. At the time, Browett's hiring raised eyebrows. If he did engineer this tragically misguided direction for Apple retail, he deserves the blame he's getting. But so do those at Apple who hired and empowered him. Change for change's sake is not good business, and change for any reason other than to make better things has seldom if ever been Apple's business.

Rather than get into a rant of my own, however, I'll give the floor to Jim Dalrymple of The Loop:

With $100 billion or so in the bank, the last thing Browett needs to worry about is cost cutting measures to save a few pennies here and there. Instead he should be focused on how to best server the surge of consumers that will take to the stores in the coming months to buy new Apple products.

Go read the rest of Jim's post, and Info Apple Store's report on the entire cluster that led to it. Especially if you're on Apple's executive team.

You're at the top of your game right now, this type of stuff becomes no one.

GetGlue's entertainment check-in app for iPad has been dramatically revamped with a particular emphasis on scheduling. Now you can see when your favorite TV shows are on and when your sports team is playing in a simple calendar layout. As a second screen during your viewing, GetGlue for ipad is offering a bunch of contextual information from around the web, including trailers and links to Netflix, iTunes, and Amazon as appropriate. GetGlue is also trying harder than ever to be your guide in discovering new shows you might be interested in based on what you've been watching and what you like. Here's the full changelog for GetGlue 3.0 on iPad.

• A personalized guide for TV, movies, and sports based on what you like.
• Get recommendations for shows you'll want to start watching.
• Check-in and chat with friends and fans while you watch.
• Enjoy the best clips, photos, and articles for your favorite shows and movies.
• Never miss a key premiere, finale, or major event that's important to you.
• Unlock stickers and other rewards from your favorite shows.

 I'm a huge fan of GetGlue, and this new direction is really great. It's easy to imagine the scheduling thing expanding into movie premieres, video game launches, and all of the other areas of content they cover. What do you guys usually use your iPad for while watching a TV show? What's your favorite couch companion app?

Free - Download Now

Source: GetGlue

Zynga launched Horn today, a new action game for iPad and iPhone. Sure, the gameplay looks an awful lot like Infinity Blade, but that's hardly a bad thing. The story goes that Horn, a blacksmith's son, is the only one with the power to lift a curse placed on local creatures by malevolent forces. 

Here's a quick run-down of the features. 

• Accessible controls that anyone can use- walking, jumping, crawling, even grapple hook, are all performed with intuitive gestures

• Freely navigable console-quality detailed world- go wherever you want; not confined to limited path or rail

• A rich and unique fantasy world 

• Touch-friendly melee combat and crossbow style weapons

• 3 unique and beautiful lands to discover

• Endlessly escalating challenge modes

• Hidden side content to discover

• Score written by award winning Austin Wintory and performed with full live orchestral 

The graphics look absolutely stunning, and I'm really hankering to try it out. What about you? 

$6.99 - Download now

Georgia, Rene, and Seth talk yet more Apple television rumors, go deep on the iPad mini mockups, argue about Siri and the iPod touch, and pre-order their iPhone pre-order thoughts. Oh, and the air conditioning, live stream, and screen sharing all trifectafail! This is the iMore show!

• Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video
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iPad mini

• iPad mini won't be much smaller, but will be a lot narrower, thinner, and lighter
• Could Apple sell a $200 iPad mini, and how would investors react if they did?

iPhone 5

• iPhone 5 pre-orders planned for September 12, second release wave for first week of October
• iPhone 5 preview: New, smaller Dock connector

iOS 6

• Siri OS: Could natural language be Apple's next big leap forward?

Community

• What's the best iPhone app you ever bought?

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

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including the iMore show, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows

Mornings -- and long days -- are rough on people. To help get through them, some of us turn to glorious coffee. For many, that has, is, and will forever be Dunkin' Donuts.  Looking to offer customers more choice and presumably keep up with those hipster kids at Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts has now released their mobile payment and gifting app, and packed it with helpful if familiar features.

• Purchase, manage, and reload a Dunkin' Donuts Card: Guests can purchase a new mobile Dunkin' Donuts Card (selecting from multiple designs for many occasions), add money to an existing card, and view all previous card transactions. The Dunkin' Mobile App supports American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and PayPal.
• Pay right from the app using a virtual Dunkin' Donuts Card: Guests can purchase Dunkin' Donuts products with the Dunkin' App by simply tapping the mobile Dunkin' Donuts Card and presenting the screen to the crew member to be scanned. Balances are updated immediately after purchase.
• Send an mGift: Dunkin' Donuts Cards can be sent to friends, family, or colleagues via email, text, or Facebook. Dunkin' Donuts is now the only national coffee retailer to offer people all of these options for sending an mGift. Dunkin' Donuts Cards can be sent in denominations between $2 and $100.
• Locate the nearest Dunkin' Donuts: A detailed restaurant locator makes it easy to find directions to and information about local Dunkin' Donuts restaurants, including store hours, in-store Wi-Fi, drive-thru availability, and more.
• Find nutritional information: The Dunkin' App makes nutritional facts available for guests' favorite Dunkin' Donuts menu items.
• Link to Dunkin' Donuts' social media communities: Dunkin' Donuts is actively engaged within leading social media channels, with more than 6.8 million Facebook fans and 160,000 Twitter followers. Easy links to "Like" Dunkin' Donuts on Facebook or follow @DunkinDonuts on Twitter can be found in the "Social" section of the Dunkin' App.

Sure, Dunkin' Donuts doesn't have a massive deal with Square but they still sell a ton of coffee and having an app that can potentially speed up the process of obtaining it is a good thing for everyone.

What's not good however is the fact the app is available only in the U.S. and some Dunkin' Donuts shops don't have the scanners needed to make it useful.

Free - Download now

Source: Dunkin' Donuts; via CIO

Scout by Telenav, one of our favorite turn-by-turn navigation apps for iPhone, has just been updated to support downloadable maps for offline use, and voice commands that allow you to control Scout with words so your hands stay free for driving.

Access to offline maps will require a subscription but it'll only run you $9.99 a year which is a steal compared to other voice navigation apps. It makes it the cheapest option currently available when it comes to GPS apps as long as you only need maps in the United States. Scout does not currently support Canada and other countries.

The other large feature that has been added is voice commands which allow you to speak to Scout without ever having to take your hands off the wheel. There's now a dedicated button in the bottom navigation for voice commands. Just tap it to activate voice commands and then you can say things like Find a gas station or Find a nearby hotel and Scout will take care of the rest. A list of places that match your criteria will appear. Tapping on one will start voice navigation from your current location.

If you reside in the United States and don't have a need for maps anywhere else, we highly suggest you check out Scout.

Scout is a free download in the App Store and you can purchase the premium subscription as an in-app purchase for $9.99 in order to access offline maps.

Free - Download Now

If you've got OS X Mountain Lion and you've recently tried to jailbreak using Absinthe 2.0 you more than likely realized that OS X Mountain Lion either won't let you open Absinthe or the program won't actually load. After a bit of research, a sharp reader over at iDownloadBlog managed to find a workaround that will allow you to run it again.

If you know what you're doing, you can head on over there and blast through the instructions. If you're not as familiar with OS X, keep reading for a step-by-step walkthrough with screen shots.

1. Right click on the Absinthe icon and choose Show Package Contents.

2. Now navigate to Contents > MacOS and you'll see a list of Absinthe packages.
3. Right click on the Absinthe 10.6 package and go to Open With and select Terminal

4. Terminal will pop up and run some commands on its own and then Absinthe will pop open like normal. From this point you can continue to jailbreak like normal.

Until an update to Absinthe is released, this is likely the best way to get it working on OS X Mountain Lion](http://www.imore.com/mountain-lion).

Source: iDownloadBlog

Additional Resources:

If you need even more help, or aren't sure what to do next, check out our Absinthe guide:

• How to jailbreak your iPhone 4S, new iPad, and more with Greenpois0n Absinthe

More information:

• How to open apps from an unidentified developer in OS X Mountain Lion
• Top 5 must have jailbreak apps
• Best jailbreak apps for iPhone
• Jailbreak help and discussion forums

Less than a month ago, a story broke about Apple buying AuthenTec, purveyors of mobile, digital security solutions including fingerprint authentication. While some Apple purchases, like Siri and Intrisity seem to suggest obvious uses, AuthenTec's portfolio and Apple's lack of any branded security beyond FairPlay DRM made intuiting this one a little less obvious. But now PREM14A proxy statement papers have been filed, and The Next Web's Matt Brian has dug through them.

Will we see fingerprint technology in the new iPhone (or iPad)? It seems almost certain. AuthenTec specialises in a number of security products and software that theoretically could have made their way into Apple's production line or code branches. Details are scarce but its desire to use the technology and see it developed quickly leads us to speculate that we could see it in just a matter of weeks.

Would the September 12 event give Apple enough time to acquire, develop, and integrate fingerprint technology into the iOS product line? Could this be something on track for the iPhone 5 or iPad mini?

Apple introduced Passbook at WWDC 2012, but cast it as a ticket and coupon repository with deft notification and location hooks. Many have imagined that it could also be a fantastic brand and front end for an Apple mobile payments solution, combining NFC and iTunes transaction processing to help bring about the digital wallet. Securing a system like that with biometrics would certainly add a layer of confidence, and make for a fantastic demo and commercial.

But how would it work? How would Apple, a company that prides itself on the aesthetic elegance and minimalism of their hardware design, integrate a unitasker like a fingerprint reader in an elegant and minimalist way? The Home button would seem ideal, but how well would it work, and how dependable would it be?

The idea of new hardware features always excites, but expectations aren't always realistic. We'll have to wait and see. However many questions the securities filings answer, they raise even more -- and ones we'll likely only get answers to when and if Apple's implementation of AuthenTec technology begins to surface.

Meanwhile, The Next Web has put together an excellent overview and chronology for the Apple/AuthenTec deal, so go check it out.

Source: SEC, The Next Web

Today Only: Buy the Body Glove DropSuit Rugged Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 and save $9.99!

The Body Glove DropSuit rugged case is designed to provide protection where and when you need it thanks its durable gel material that resists the battles of everyday life. The case has reinforced corners with a unique shock dissipation system to absorb impact and defend against bumps and drops. Comes in gray and purple.

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Apple has offered real, live, printed iTunes gift cards for years and years now, and it looks like Google is just about ready to join them with Google Play gift cards. While this might only seem like big news for the big Android geek in your shopping vicinity, lots and lots of Google users also use iPhones and iPads, and Google offers a lot of apps on iOS for them to use. Phil Nickinson from Android Central has the details:

We've already seen the Google Play Store app getting prepped for gift cards -- and now we've scored the cards themselves. (Or, at least, a look at the outer wrapping.) We've been slipped a few pics of $10 and $25 gift cards, clearly branded for Google Play, with "Music Movies Books Apps & More" listed at the bottom.

Sure, we don't need no apps, but if you know someone all in on Google Music or Google Books, this might just make for a handy, off-beat stocking stuffer or birthday bonus. And it's just one more way former partners, now entrenched rivals, Apple and Google will be competing for your attention and your money.

Apple has always had the advantage of global reach when it came to iTunes, the ability to sell digital goods and take credit cards and other forms of payment around the world. Google has been catching up, but iTunes still enjoys real-world placement on store racks from tiny mom-and-pop convenience stores to the biggest boxes in retail. That creates awareness, branding, and yes, income. If someone wants an actual physical good to give little Timmy for winning the All Valley Karate Tournament, Google Play wasn't even an option.

Now it soon might be.

Hit the link below for more pictures and all the info, and then come back and tell us -- would you consider picking up a Google Play gift card next time you're at the Quicky Mart or Super Store? Or is it iTunes for life?

Source: Android Central

As we all know, NASA has successfully sent its Curiosity Rover to Mars and it landed on the planet on August 6th. The mission's aim was to discover the habitability of Mars along with its climate, geology and to gain enough information to possibly launch a manned mission in the future.

The mission has already produced some amazingly detailed photographs of the planet's surface and if you have an iPhone you can even enjoy one particular picture in an immersive 360 degree look. On top of that, you can even use the iPhone's gyroscope to spin round on the spot and watch the landscape change before your eyes; it is extremely clever stuff. The camera is positioned on top of the Curiosity so if you tilt your iPhone down enough you will see it right underneath you.

If you want to give this a go, it is very straight forward to do. Firstly make sure you are running the Safari Mobile browser on your iPhone. Visit the site that hosts the image and get ready to be in awe. Once the page has loaded, you will see the image of Mars' surface. Simply moving your iPhone up and down and turning around will let you take a fantastic look around Mars.

It really is that simple and a very special experience; lets hope we get to see many more images from Mars like this one. If you want to show off the power of your iPhone, this is a great way to do it!

Source: 360 Cities

Found an interesting article you want to share with iMore? Have a burning question about that feature you just can't figure out? There is ALWAYS more happening just a click away in the forums. You can always head over and join in the conversation, search for answers, or lend your expertise to other members of our community. You check out some of the threads below:

If you're not already a member of the iMore Forums, register now!

Aside from a full-on Apple television, one of the longest running rumors in Apple living-room land is a deal with cable companies and/or broadcast networks for the right to air traditional cable programming on an Apple TV or similar set-top box. However, television is notoriously myopic and future-averse, and Apple has previously sought to disrupt rather than engage their business. But that might be changing. Jessica E. Vascellaro And Shalini Ramachandran, writing for The Wall Street Journal, report that Apple might be trying a more pragmatic approach than before.

The talks illustrate that Apple is seeking a less radical path to expand in television than it has contemplated in the past, namely teaming up with existing service providers rather than licensing content to compete with them directly.

Steve Jobs once elaborated on the problems involved in going to market with a television or television box, namely the cable companies make even the cell phone companies look unified and sane by comparison. It's tough to see Apple compromising on either user experience or control to get a deal like that done either, but the Wall Street Journal has certainly proved credible in the past.

This could just be another in the long history of periodic feeling outs that Apple and Hollywood seem to feel compelled to engage in -- a tug at the thread Apple CEO Tim Cook still feels is there.

The WSJ also once again repeats the rumor that Apple has prototyped television sets, as mentioned above, and as iMore has also heard previously.

Where all of this is going, if any of it is going in the short term, is probably still too early to say, but for most consumers, including Apple consumers, it remains a problem that needs solving.

And the Apple TV remains a single-digit million-selling hobby, rather than the hundred million unit moving solution that typically attracts Apple this days.

The Wall Street Journal