Football season is upon us again and with it comes the need for score updates, player stats, rosters, and other information hardcore fans want in the palm of their hands. For iPhone users, you've got tons of options when it comes to apps. Whether you just want to check score updates or check on your favorite fantasy football league. Follow along for our top picks.

ESPN ScoreCenter

ScoreCenter is by far one of the most popular sports apps in the App Store. Not only does it contain support for NFL but other sports as well. You can follow your favorite teams and choose to receive push notifications for a variety of different things. You can set alerts for individual games or for a whole season which is nice for people who may not want updates for games they're able to watch. They can just set them for games they know they're going to miss.

I like the fact that ScoreCenter allows you to follow all your teams and see a brief summary in one place. If you just want to check scores and stats quickly you won't have to dig around. But you have the option to see more detailed information if you want to.

ScoreCenter is a free download in the App Store.

• Free - Download Now

ESPN Fantasy Football 2012

For those of you that take part in fantasy football leagues, ESPN also offers an app for fantasy leagues as well. You'll need to already have a fantasy league to use this app but once you have one, you can use the app to manage your league, including the ability to start, bench, add, or drop players, accept or reject trades, receive push notifications for scores, substitutions, and trades.

ESPN Fantasy Football 2012 also allows you to view fantasy league news and is a free download in the App Store.

• Free - Download Now

Pro Football Insider

If you want to view more than just stats, scores, rosters, and rankings - you may prefer Pro Football Insider. It contains not only the information you'd expect but thousands of video clips, updated news and rumors, and even more.

One thing I really found interesting about this app over the others was the integrated Twitter feed which aggregates Twitter postings from not only industry experts but players themselves.

If you're a Pro Football Insider subscriber you'll also have access to even more premium content that the free app doesn't provide. This is an app any hardcore football fan will want to pick up.

• Free - Download Now

NFL '12

While I didn't find NFL '12 to be as in depth as some of the other picks, the ease of use and simple to navigate interface makes up for it. If you need an app that will give you up-to-date game information along with player stats, rosters, and statistics - NFL '12 should suit you well.

You can customize alerts for teams and games just as you can in some of the other popular apps such as ESPN ScoreCenter. NFL '12 also offers integration with their NFL.com Fantasy Football 2011 (App Store link) service and app. Most fantasy football fans I talked to seemed to prefer the ESPN fantasy app better, but if you prefer the NFL fantasy app, this pairing may be a better option for you.

• Free - Download Now

NFL Fantasy Cheat Sheet 2012

Here's another app fantasy football leaguers will definitely want to check out. Not only does it aggregate up to date NFL news, standings, and charts - it's one of the better apps out there for managing your fantasy leagues.

Out of the apps I checked out for fantasy football fans, this app seemed to have the best user interface by far. You can quickly view profiles and stats by simply swiping left and right. Other apps sometimes left stats buried and harder to get to. This app is put together exceptionally well and will make managing your content easier than ever.

Some of the main features of the app include the ability to view custom rankings based on your league scoring system, 2012 projections and stats based on data from 2007 - 2011, team depth charts, rank players manually, draft player tracking and more.

• $2.99 - Download Now

While these may be some of our favorite apps to load up on our iPhones during football season, it doesn't mean there aren't other great ones out there. If you use something different let us know what your picks are as well.

And if you want even more suggestions on football or NFL apps, check out our iMore apps & games forum for more opinions from forum members. You can also give us your opinions on your favorite sports apps in our iMore apps & games review forum. We'd love to hear from you!

Ally Kazmucha contributed a significant amount of content to this article.

Following Whitemint, the original celebrity-endorsed chewing experience, Stride and Shaun White are pleased to announce their latest creation. Mintacular. A gum that redefines the limits of possibility. Again.

Magically funny.

Since the phenomenal success of the Pebble smart watch on Kickstarter, a few other designers have seen the huge interest it generated and decided to start looking at their own ideas for a smart watch. One of those ideas has now appeared on Kickstarter and instead of a smart watch that is all about the display, this one is all about voice control from your wrist.

The Martian watch has a permanent always visible analogue watch face, directly below that is a small OLED text display panel that will show you caller ID information, calendar reminders and SMS messages. The Martian connects to your iPhone through a Bluetooth connection and is pretty much a Bluetooth headset built into a watch. It has a two way speaker and works with normal voice commands as well as the ability to hook into Siri on an iPhone 4S.

We knew the world didn't need another Bluetooth headset. Our idea? "Why not a Bluetooth voice command WATCH?" You could actually enjoy wearing it. You wouldn't have to take it in and out of your ear all day. It would always be there and there'd be even more it could do for you! For example…like other Bluetooth watches we love, it would also give you "info at a glance"notifications. But with a voice watch, if you saw you were getting a call from a friend, you could simply answer it on the watch and leave your phone where it is…pocket, purse, backpack, running armband…wherever.

Connect Martian to your mobile phone just like you would a wireless headset, using an easy no-code pairing system. The top Command Button initiates commands. The bottom Select Button controls volume and feature selections. Notifications come in the form of a vibration, RGB LED light and an OLED text display. The LED light indicator blinks green for an incoming phone call and blue for an incoming SMS/text message or notification.

Smart Watches are definitely beginning to capture everyone's imagination and this latest Kickstarter project is certainly different to the Pebble watch and any others that we have seen so far. The idea of being able to control your iPhone by talking to your watch sounds amazing. Of course you have to take into account that any phone conversation will be audible to everyone around you and be subject to a lot of background noise; that speaker would need to be very cloud and clear.

If you like the idea of the Martian watch, you can become an early adopter with a pledge of $95 or more to secure one should they make it into production. The Martian watch currently has just under $45,000 of pledges and it needs to hit over $200,000 to gain enough to be funded; it still has 43 days to go. As with all of these Kickstarter projects, just because a particular item reaches its funding total doesn't guarantee it will go into production.

Can you see a future where you will be talking to your watch to make and receive calls, send text messages and schedule appointments or is this idea one step too far?

Source: Kickstarter

The title really does say it all -- if Google had never gone ahead with Android and, instead, if they'd maintained their close relationship with Apple, what would iOS 6 be like today? Would Google Maps still be there, and would it be as good as Google Maps on Android is? Would YouTube still be there, and be as good as YouTube on Android? What other services might have been integrated, GTalk instead of iMessage? Google sync instead of iCloud? Would the iPhone 5 ship with NFC-powered Google Wallet? Would the iPad mini come with 20 GB of free space on Google Drive? How far and how deeply could the Apple and Google love affair have gone?

And who would have taken Android's place as Apple's biggest competitor? Would webOS have gotten on Verizon sooner and enjoyed all the marketing that went instead to Droid? Would BlackBerry have kept more of its user base and gained more of the not-Apple share? Would Samsung have gone all-in on Windows Phone and be neck-in-neck with Nokia for the top spot? Would Facebook or Amazon have already rushed in to fill the void?

Put your imaginations to work and give me your best guess -- where would our iPhones and iPads, and the rest of the mobile industry be today if Google had never left Apple?

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Motorola Mobility has filed suit again Apple with the International Trade Commission (ITC) over patents reportedly related to Apple's personal digital assistant feature, Siri and more. Patent suits between Apple and various Android manufacturers are a dime a dozen these days, but what makes this one stand out is that a) Google now owns Motorola, b) Google previously tried to manipulate public sentiment by claiming Apple sought to litigate instead of innovate, c) Google is now litigating. Bloomberg reports:

The complaint at the U.S. International Trade Commission claims infringement of seven Motorola Mobility patents on features including location reminders, e-mail notification and phone/video players, Motorola Mobility said today. The case seeks a ban on U.S. imports of devices including the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers. Apple's products are made in Asia.

Of course, Google and Motorola are well within their legal rights to sue Apple or anyone whom they believe is infringing on their patents without proper license. Once again, it's not what Google does, but the needless hypocrisy they preface it with that's so distasteful.

Using feigned philosophy and nobility to motivate and mobilize the support of a user base is one thing, but conning them is another. It happened before when Google claimed to be "open" and turned out to barely even be "openy. Lucky for Google, many don't pay attention -- or turn a blind eye -- to the details. But even the most ardent, least attentive supporter will eventually figure out they're being played. Then Google will enjoy the equal and opposite reaction.

With these lawsuits, Google is doing what Google feel they have to do. Just like Apple's doing with their lawsuits. That's fine. Any company sufficiently large is indistinguishable from evil. Just be candid with your users about it. Tell them you're going thermonuclear. Don't hold up a dove and play a hippie jingle, all the while lighting up the napalm.

Update: Go read Jerry Hildenbrand's take over at Android Central.

While you cheer and say Apple deserves a taste of their own medicine, I'll be here thinking of the people who might be saving to buy an iPad, only to (potentially) have the opportunity taken away -- by Google. That makes me sad, and seeing Android fans cheer in droves makes me even sadder. We pride ourselves on the choice Android and Google give us, so seeing them try to take away a fair choice is not something I can support. Don't be evil, Google. Even when the other kids on the playground are.

Source: Bloomberg

I've already had my rant, as have John Gruber, Matthew Panzarino, Lex Friedman, M.G. Siegler, Jerry Hildenbrand, Benjamin Brooks, Shawn Blanc, and many others across the blogsphere. Which is good, because tech bloggers, especially Apple and mobile tech bloggers, tend to be monster Twitter users (and not the automated social media marketing types -- actual heavy-duty users the type of which helped spin up the service to begin with.) Yet we, like any user, will be challenged only so far as the apps we use to engage Twitter are challenged, and those apps are made by developers, and those developers are at the front lines.

So what are the Twitter developers saying? Here are some excerpts and links back, and I'll add more as I find them.

Paul Haddad of Tapbots:

There's been a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt generated by Twitter's latest announcement. I wanted to let everyone know that the world isn't ending, Tweetbot for Mac is coming out soon, Tweetbot for iOS isn't going anywhere. So sit down, grab a towel and let's go over some of these API changes.

Gedeon Maheux of the Iconfactory:

Well, there's some good news. Twitterrific has tons of user tokens available, enough to make the next version more than doable. #whew

Marco Arment of Instapaper:

Closer to home for me, it affects Instapaper's "Liked By Friends" browsing feature, which will need to be significantly rewritten if I want it to comply. (If.)

Nate Weiner of Pocket:

We've been told that the new API guidelines are not intended to affect or hamper your ability to integrate Pocket with Twitter apps or clients. The 'social actions' refer to Twitter's own actions like Fav, RT, and Reply.

David Barnard of App Cubby:

At this very moment I bet there are thousands of people writing many millions of words about Twitter losing its way, so I won't pile on. But as a former Twitter developer, I will say that I am deeply saddened by today's announcement. The 3rd party ecosystem is what made Twitter. This announcement is a huge slap in the face and a knife to the back.

So, indeed, the sky isn't falling. Your favorite Twitter app or tweeting feature isn't going anywhere. Yet.

But to paraphrase Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back (and really, why wouldn't you?), Twitter has altered the deal, and all Twitter-dependant developers can do is pray Twitter doesn't alter it again.

Because it's not only about the present, it's about the future, and when you start to think you won't be next, it usually means you will be. You. Will. Be.

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All you have to do is follow iMore on Youtube, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook and as a thank you for doing so we're going to pick a lucky winner each month from among our iMore followers / subscribers / fans on each of these sites to win some great iPhone prizes! That's four winners each month - one picked at random from each site. All you need to do is click the links below to follow us on each site, and just keep following us! We'll pick our four winners on the last day of each month and announce them around the first day of the new month along with the prizes to be won for the new month. You can subscribe to all of Youtube, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook to maximize your chances of winning.

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