Travel, travel, travel, it’s what we’re starting to think about now that sunny summer is on our calendars. And just by sheer luck, there happen to be a lot of great travel related apps out there on sale this weekend. It’s almost like the App Store is telling you to get out there and have some sunny summer fun.
If you want to get yourself around Thailand, nothing helps quite like a good interactive map. Save and grab this freebie.
If Korea’s more your speed, we’ve got you covered there as Korea Travelpedia cut off the ticket to make it a free app too.
If you’re going abroad, it’s always good to learn the language and with a four buck price drop, you’ll be spouting Macedonian, French, German, or Italian for free in no time.
You’ll want to take pictures to share on your trip, so be sure to get a good Flickr app like this off to free app that was an Apple Staff Favorite.
FlickStackr is also competing for your dollars with their two-day sale of this app for free. Get ‘em both and make ‘em do a cage death match!
You’ll need a lot of lists if you’re going to go on a vacation, where you’re going, what you’ve packed, things you need to do before you leave. Luckily, Listary is free right now and makes it easy for you.
Let Trip Pages be your freebie for your picture data. Logs where, weather, and all other kinds of data to give you complete picture of where you were when you took that great shot.
Here’s a travelers delight. Snap a photo of some text and the app does the rest. If you’re going to China, you’ll want this, down from .99 to .99.
A strange thing missing from default Mail is personalized signatures for each account, but Signatures makes it easy to really go unique and do it for .99.
Another office related app, this puts the power of working with MS Office docs into your pocket or your iPad and at .99 the price is right.
Assuming there are any MacLife.com readers out there today who aren’t skipping work or school to go see The Avengers, the tech world is still churning up news on this fabulous Friday. Exploding iPhones, iPhoto map attribution, FTC fines, Walmart pricing goofs and even a Slippery Seal make up the news for this Friday, May 4, 2012 — so assemble your own avengers and get to reading, won’t you?
Apple released the first update to its iPhoto for iOS app earlier this week, but it didn’t arrive with much in the way of new features. According to Talking Points Memo, the update did make some folks at OpenStreetMap quite happy, however. As you may recall, a minor controversy erupted after iPhoto was released when users discovered that Apple had tossed out Google’s map service in favor of the open-source OpenStreetMap — without giving the non-profit organization credit. Almost two months later, the situation has been rectified with the May 1 update to version 1.0.1, in which Apple now properly attributes the maps to OpenStreetMap. “Obviously we’d rather that Apple had attributed right from the start, but nonetheless this is a big step forward,” OpenStreetMap Foundation board member Richard Fairhurst told TPM. “If the biggest computer company in the world, one with a perfectionist instinct, feels that OpenStreetMap data meets its needs and is happy to publicly attribute us, then that’s a great vote of confidence in our community’s work.”
Remember the story about the iPhone 4 that suffered a bad case of spontaneous gadget combustion aboard an airplane that had just landed in Sydney, Australia last November? MacRumors is reporting that a subsequent investigation of the handset reveals that a lost screw used during a screen replacement was to blame. “The phone was sent to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as part of an investigation into the matter, which has now revealed that a misplaced screw punctured the battery casing, leading to a short circuit that caused the battery to overheat,” ZDNet.com.au reports. “The screw that caused the issue was the result of a botched screen-replacement job from a non-authorised service centre. A screw from the bottom of the unit, adjacent to the 30-pin connector, found its way into the handset, and caused the battery compartment to puncture as a result.” Apple will be quite happy to hear those findings, we’re sure.
Bloomberg is reporting that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is negotiating with Google, who “deceived consumers and violated terms of a consent decree signed with the commission last year when it planted so-called cookies on Safari, bypassing Apple software’s privacy settings,” a person familiar with the matter revealed today. While the FTC had no comment, Google could face a fine of more than million as the government steps up enforcement of internet privacy. The consent decree signed last year by Google confesses to using “deceptive tactics,” including violations of its own privacy policy by introducing Buzz in 2010. The fines could amount to ,000 per day, per violation — which could wind up being a big chunk of change, even for Google.
On Thursday, Cult of Mac reported that the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S appeared to be getting a significant price drop at Walmart — from to in the case of the former and from 8 to 4 for the latter. Before you pack up the kids and head to the nearest Wally World in search of a deal, you should know that the prices were in error, which the retail chain has sadly confirmed in a statement today. “Yesterday, we experienced a pricing error in limited stores,” explains Walmart. “This has been addressed and the normal prices are in effect.” The news isn’t all bad, since Apple’s handsets can still be had pretty cheaply at Walmart (with a two-year agreement, naturally). Why, look at that three-year-old iPhone 3GS: It’s a mere 97 cents. “Save money, live better” indeed…
Rock Out Apps has introduced Slippery Seal, a new App Store game for kids which offers equal helpings of fun alongside eco-friendly education. The game follows the exploits of Slippery the Harbor Seal as he swims from San Francisco to Alaska in a side-scrolling adventure. Along the way, the seal finds plenty of yummy clams to keep up his strength for the journey home — but can Slippery fend off equally hungry creatures looking to make a meal out of him? Slippery Seal includes 10 beautiful Pacific Coast Highway locales and the 99-cent game is compatible with all devices running iOS 4.1 or later; a free version with the first two levels is also available from the App Store.
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