iLounge

Apple and Walmart subsidiary Sam’s Club are in early discussions over the possibility of the latter’s warehouse club stores playing host to Apple Store-within-a-store locations. Citing anonymous sources, 9to5Mac reports that Apple is looking to expand the store-in-a-store program beyond its existing partnerships with Best Buy and Target. According to the report, a secondary plan is also being discussed, which would involve Sam’s Club selling Mac computers alongside its existing iPhone, iPad, and iPod offerings. The report notes that whatever the outcome of the discussions, it is unlikely such store-within-a-store locations would appear any time soon.

Apple has quietly added new menu options for accessing Genius recommendations for movies and TV shows to the second-generation Apple TV. Mac Rumors reports that early reports noting the change claimed that the menu option was displayed with the name “ATV.Menu.MOVIE.GeniusItem”, suggesting that the option’s appearance may have been premature; however, the issues seems to have been fixed. Genius recommendations for movies and TV shows have been available for sometime in iTunes on the Mac and PC—via the iTunes Sidebar—as well as on all other iOS devices, but are new to the Apple TV.

Shenzhen, China-based Proview Technology has filed for a temporary restraining order to stop Apple from using the iPad name in mainland China. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple previously filed a challenge against Proview, which claims it owns the iPad name in mainland China; Apple’s challenge was rejected in December, but the company has appealed to a higher court. “We’ve been negotiating with Apple,” said Yang Rongshan, chairman of the Proview arm in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. “I can’t tell you what the status right now since this is a commercial secret, but so far their attitude is still quite ambiguous.” According to the report, the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce is also looking in to a complaint from Proview. Proview registered the name in 2001.

M5859 Studios has released Inside the World of Dinosaurs, an interactive dinosaur encyclopedia for the iPad. Narrated by Stephen Fry, the app provides a comprehensive multimedia encyclopedia that features the entire catalogue of dinosaurs from Archeopteryx to Zuniceratops, including a library of 60 fully animated and interactive dinosaurs displayed in three-dimensional models that users can spin around and view at any angle. Users can zoom in to closely study details such as skin texture and colour, view animated fight sequences and scrub backward and forward to analyze dinosaurs’ walk cycles.

Created as a collaboration with subject matter experts in science, literature and digital art, Inside the World of Dinosaurs provides over 310 fully interactive 3D models, 60 expertly modelled photo-realistic dinosaurs, 40 fully interactive 3D recreations of dinosaurs in mid-flight, 200 pages of detailed original text, 5 hours of narration by Stephen Fry, 84 videos and historical pictures and much more. Inside the World of Dinosaurs requires an iPad with iOS 4.3 or later and is available from the App Store for $14.

Sprite Labs has released an update to Paint FX, its photo effects editor for iOS, adding native iPad support and several new filters and effects. Paint FX is a photo effects editor for iOS that provides the ability to apply filters and effects to an entire photo or only specific areas of a photo as well as the ability to layer multiple effects on top of each other. The app provides a large number of pre-defined filters and effects that can be further customized by the user including adjustments for brightness, contrast and saturation, and masking tools allow users to apply a given set of effects to only specific portions of an image. Resulting images can be shared on Facebook or sent via e-mail. With the most recent updates, Paint FX is now a universal app, adding native iPad support and higher-resolution photo support for the iPad 2 and significantly extends the number of filters and effects available. Paint FX is available from the App Store for $2.

AT&T has started to throttle—or downgrade the data speeds of—customers on unlimited data plans that go over 2GB in data usage for the month. As AT&T customer John Cozen wrote on his blog, “I received a message during my last billing cycle, warning I was in the top 5% of my region and would experience reduced data speeds next time I reach that level of data use. I immediately checked my data usage on the AT&T iOS app. 2.1 GB. Less than I expected considering AT&T offers a 3GB plan for $30 a month. The same amount I’ve paid for the unlimited data plan since signing up with them many years ago. AT&T no longer offers an unlimited data plan, anyone still on it has been grandfathered in.”

“Data consumption by all smartphone customers, including the top 5 percent of smartphone data customers, varies by month and by market,” said Emily Edmonds, Director, AT&T Corporate Communications. “As of August 2011, the average data use across the country by the top 5 percent of AT&T smartphone customers was 2 GB per month.”

The latest edition of iLounge Weekly, our weekly newsletter covering all things iLounge, will be arriving in subscribers’ inboxes Monday morning. iLounge Weekly is a summary of the week’s best news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. There’s still plenty of time to sign up and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form below to submit your email address, if you haven’t done so already.

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iLounge is pleased to announce the iBattz Mojo Power Card Giveaway. In our Giveaway of the Month for February, iLounge and iBattz are giving away one of ten iBattz Mojo Removable Power Card battery packs. To enter, simply fill out and submit the form on the giveaway page—the giveaway will end on February 29, 2012 at 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!

Apple has released a minor maintenance update to iBooks, addressing an issue where iBooks textbooks may not open under certain circumstances. An update to iBooks Author has also been released on the Mac App Store expressly to provide an updated version of the End User License Agreement. The original iBooks Author EULA drew criticism for a clause suggesting that Apple was potentially claiming exclusive distribution rights for any commercial work produced with the iBooks Author application, preventing users from distributing such works in other formats. The new EULA adds some necessary clarification, with an update to section 2.B.(ii) which now reads

The new EULA clause clarifies that Apple is enforcing exclusive distribution rights solely on content packaged in its own proprietary iBooks format, but that users retain their rights in their original content and may distribute this content outside of the iBookstore in any other format.

The NFL has released three official iOS apps for this year’s Super Bowl XLVI. Super Bowl XLVI Official NFL Game Program (free) for iPad has been updated for this year’s event packing over 400MB of exclusive NFL video and other multimedia content plus additional interactive content chronicling the Giants’ and Patriots’ road to the championship, along with memories of past Super Bowls and key moments from the 2011 season. This app is for the iPad only and requires iOS 4.3 or later.

The SB SLVI Guide is a free universal app designed for those attending the event in person, providing a detailed guide to local restaurants, nightlife and official Super Bowl events, along with a 3D map of Indianopolis and an interactive 3D map of Lucas Oil Stadium for game day. The app also provides a connection to NFL Huddle to follow the social media buzz around the event and features to mark your parking spot and help find the right seating section in the stadium. This universal app requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Lastly, the Super Bowl XLVI Commemorative App ($3) for the iPad provides in-depth content for fans of the Super Bowl series including each team’s road to Super Bowl XLVI, a breakdown of the game, written recaps and key stats and bonus feature content including all-time, all-star teams and Super Bowl history. This Commemorative app will also be updated with additional bonus features once the game is over to include official video highlights of the game along with interviews, pictures, animated plays, stadium shots and more. The app is iPad only, requires iOS 4.3 and is currently on sale for a pre-game discount price of $3.

Readdle has released Remarks, a new note-taking and PDF annotating app for the iPad. Remarks provides the ability to create text notes and freehand sketches that are saved as PDF files that can be easily viewed, printed and edited on the desktop or shared via e-mail. In addition, Remarks provides the ability to quickly and easily annotate existing PDF files, providing tools to highlight, underline, and strikeout text or simply draw predefined shapes or freehand annotations directly in the document. PDF files created or annotated in Remarks can also be shared and edited by other Remarks users for team collaboration. The app also supports iTunes File Sharing for transferring PDF files between the iPad and desktop and provides the ability to open PDF files directly from other supports iPad applications such as Dropbox, Safari and Mail. Remarks requires an iPad running iOS 4.2 or later and is available from the App Store for $5.

Flos is now offering its new D’E-Light lamp for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Designed by Philippe Starck and made from chrome-plated aluminum, the lamp features a striking design, a 2700K flat panel LED light capable of producing 299 Lumens, and a top-mounted dock capable of recharging an iPhone, iPad, or iPod. Flos’ D’E-Light is available now and sells for $396.

The third edition of iPod and iTunes Portable Genius, penned by iLounge Applications Editor Jesse Hollington, is now available. Weighing in at 384 pages, the book includes a number of useful how-tos, tips, full-color screenshots, and other information for iPod and iTunes users. The third edition contains a variety of updated information, including details relating to iTunes 10.5, iOS 5, iTunes Match, and iCloud. iPod and iTunes Portable Genius is available now from Amazon and from the iBookstore; pricing varies by format.

6 Wunderkinder has released an iPhone app for Wunderkit, its new cloud-based project management service. Wunderkit is designed to help users organize their tasks and projects collaboratively with friends, family and colleagues by providing a social layer. The iPhone and iPod touch application supports all of the main features of the web app including the ability to create and organize workspaces for individual projects and areas of responsibility, create and edit notes and tasks and interact with friends by commenting on project updates. The iPhone app also allows users to invite their friends from Facebook and Twitter to collaborate on workspaces and provides a stream view collecting all status updates and recent activity in a single timeline for quick reference. Wunderkit requires iOS 4.0 or later and is available from the App Store as a free download.

Motorola Mobility has won a second patent ruling against Apple in Germany, even as the latter has been forced to remove some iPhone and iPad models from its online store thanks to the prior ruling. Bloomberg reports that the Mannheim Regional Court found that Apple infringed upon a Motorola patent used to synchronize email accounts with its iCloud service, a ruling that allows Motorola hold Apple liable for damage. “The court has come to the conclusion that the wording of the patent does cover functions that were at issue here,” said ruling Judge Andreas Voss. Apple “wasn’t able to convince the court that it isn’t infringing.” Apple spokesman Alan Hely said that “Apple believes this old pager patent is invalid and we’re appealing the court’s decision.”

In addition, Apple overnight removed some iPhone and iPad models from its online store in Germany in response to a ruling from December claiming that the products infringe upon a Motorola patent related to GPRS technology. Specifically, the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and all Wi-Fi models of the iPad are affected—according to BBC News—but not the iPhone 4S or Wi-Fi-only models of the iPad. “While some iPad and iPhone models are not available through Apple’s online store in Germany right now, customers should have no problem finding them at one of our retail stores or an authorized reseller,” Hely said. Apple has appealed the December ruling, arguing that Motorola refuses to license the industry standard patent on fair and reasonable terms.

Update: Apple has since been granted a suspension of the injunction against the iPhones and iPads mentioned previously. ”All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple’s online store in Germany shortly” Apple told SlashGear in a statement. “Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.”

Pro media production software developer Avid has released Avid Studio, an advanced multimedia editing suite for the iPad. Avid Studio incorporates leading film-editing technology into an intuitive iOS app that allows users to quickly and easily edit video, audio and photos directly on their iPad. Users arrange their clips in the Storyboard view and can then move over to the Timeline view for making precision edits and adding professional transitions effects and a soundtrack. Video, audio and photos can be imported directly from the iOS media library or users can import content from external devices using the iPad Camera Connection Kit. Built-in tutorials are included to get users started quickly and a number of advanced features are available for enhancing video content such as multi-layer 3D animations, transitions and titles, layered composite video tracks, picture-in-picture effects and high-quality motion titles and graphics with full presentation and animation controls. The resulting movie can be uploaded directly to services such as YouTube and Facebook for sharing or can be exported to Avid Studio for the PC to continue with more advanced editing tools. Avid Studio requires an iPad running iOS 5.0 or later and is available from the App Store for $5.

Incase has introduced its new Sports Armband Deluxe for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. The Sports Armband Deluxe has been completely redesigned from prior versions, and features a detachable case with an integrated belt clip that offers full access to all ports, controls, and cameras, and a fully adjustable perforated arm band with a connector plate designed to work with the case’s clip. Incase’s Sports Armband Deluxe for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S is available now and sells for $45.

Norwegian indie developer Machineboy has released Duration, a new app designed to provide a simple and elegant timer for everyday tasks down to the second. The app provides a large animated countdown display that makes it easy to visualize how much time is left even from a distance or for kids who can’t yet tell time. Unlike the iPhone’s built-in Clock app, Duration also provides the ability to set the timer to intervals in seconds, making it useful for counting down shorter intervals such as timing a turn in a game, boiling the perfect egg or timing short workout sessions. The app provides five coloured themes and five custom alarm sounds with optional tick-tock sounds and vibration features. Duration requires iOS 5.0 or later and is available from the App Store for $1.

Capcom has released an iOS version of the popular Nintendo DS mystery adventure game, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Originally created by Shu Takumi, father of the critically acclaimed Ace Attorney series, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective combines Takumi’s signature style of quirky humour, logic puzzles and an intriguing storyline wrapped in a unique art style. In the game, players take on the role of Sissel, the ghost of a murder victim with no memory of who he is or what happened to him; players must unravel the mystery of Sissel’s demise by guiding him through dynamic environments, possessing and manipulating objects and solving puzzles before time runs out at daybreak. The game features intuitive touch screen controls optimized for the iOS platform, enhanced graphics and incorporates Game Center support. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a universal app requiring iOS 4.3 or later and is available from the App Store as a free download and includes Chapter 1 and 2; subsequent chapters are available via in-app purchase in three different packs for $5 each or $10 for all chapters.

Tunewear has unveiled its new Security Locker for the iPad 2. Designed for use in businesses or other public environments, the Security Locker consists of a clear polycarbonate hard case that is secured together using screws, and an included security lock and wire system that can be used to secure the device to a desk or table. The same holes used for attachment of the wire can be used to attach the included shoulder strap; the Security Locker also comes with protective film for the iPad’s display, and offers full access to all port and controls while the device is encased. Tunewear’s Security Locker for the iPad 2 is available now and sells for $100.