Now that June is in full swing, the annual E3 show kicks off this week in Los Angeles, only the first of a number of exciting (and costly to our wallet) events. By this time next week we’ll be basking in the glow of whatever Apple has deigned to show us at WWDC, and Google I/O will wrap up the busy month with their own brand of fun. Might be a good time to put those credit cards on ice, right? In the meantime, soak up some absolutely free fun with today’s recap for Monday, June 4, 2012.
Apparently not content to gobble up Motorola Mobility and leave it at that, Google has entered into an agreement to acquire Meebo, the cloud-based IM service. “For more than seven years we've been helping publishers find deeper relationships with their users and to make their sites more social and engaging,” the Meebo team announced on their blog today. “Together with Google, we're super jazzed to roll up our sleeves and get cracking on even bigger and better ways to help users and website owners alike. We've had a blast building Meebo so far and we're really excited to start the next leg of our journey.” According to a statement released to The Verge, this “next leg” is likely to involve some connectivity with Google+ as part of what’s rumored to be a $100 million deal. A bit surprising considering how slow Meebo was to respond to the onslaught of apps -- the company didn’t introduce its free iPhone app until early 2010, three years after the iconic handset was first previewed.
Developer Bitolithic has updated two of its key apps for the new iPad’s stunning Retina Display. On Sunday, the company released version 5.1.4 of its Comic Zeal Comic Reader, a universal app for reading comic books. While the previous version already allowed imported comics to take advantage of the new iPad’s display, the entire user interface has now been updated, complete with high resolution thumbnails for devices with a Retina Display. The update also adds an option to auto-sort a series when importing new comics and a whole lot more. Meanwhile, today the company’s iPad-only ThinkBook app received a new Retina Display-ready update, complete with a swanky new icon and a fix for an issue related to finders not showing where a found note came from. Both apps are available now from the App Store for only $4.99 each and as always, are free updates for existing customers.
The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo doesn’t officially kick off until tomorrow, but Microsoft hit the ground running for its E3 keynote today. While most of the company’s announcements revolved around the Xbox 360 -- including the arrival this fall of the Internet Explorer browser on the gaming console -- the folks in Redmond also played a little catch-up with Cupertino. Xbox SmartGlass is billed as “an application for Windows 8, Windows Phone, and other portable devices that connects phones, PCs and tablets with your Xbox 360 console to make your entertainment smarter, more interactive and more fun,” the company explains in a press release. “The intelligence of Xbox SmartGlass makes your entertainment more engaging, Web surfing more effortless, and playing games more immersive by delivering companion content and control to enhance your TV experience.” In other words, SmartGlass is the company’s answer to AirPlay. Microsoft is also leaping further into the music business with Xbox Music, an all-new service for the Xbox 360, Windows Phone and Windows 8 platforms.
Rodale Inc. has announced that Men’s Health magazine is the first iOS app developed entirely with Adobe’s new Digital Publishing Suite. Beginning with the September issue (available in August), the magazine will include special content developed specifically for iOS in an effort to create an enhanced viewing experience unavailable on other devices. “This brand prides itself on being first to market, so developing an iPhone version of Men’s Health quickly is a natural next step for us,” said David Zinczenko, Editor-in-Chief of Men’s Health and GM for Rodale’s Healthy Living Group and Rodale Books. “Our readers are hungry for the next iteration of content and we are positioned to publish a seamless and engaging multi-platform experience.” The free universal app is available from the App Store and requires a device running iOS 4.0 or later.
Most of us probably expected Apple to roll Siri into the new iPad when it debuted in April, but the feature was notably absent from that product introduction. According to a report from 9to5Mac, Apple apparently plans to hold the release back until iOS 6 later this year, and even has a screenshot mockup of what it might look like. Rather than take over the entire iPad screen, sources claim that Siri “slides up from below the display with a clever animation” after holding down the home button. “Siri is built into the iPad as a small window on top of whatever interface the user is currently interacting with. This Siri window with rounded corners sits at the bottom center of the display, as you can see in our mockup above. The Siri iPad interface takes very little space over the iPad interface currently in use, and is designed with the same linen texture as on the iPhone 4S. Siri for iPad also works from the lock screen.” All makes sense to us -- now if it just makes sense to any of the iOS engineers up in Cupertino, we might be in business.
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(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac)
