Assuming the rumors are true, we might see iTunes 11 today -- but barring another delay from Cupertino, it should certainly show up by tomorrow, given that's the last day of November. We've lost a bit of enthusiasm for the new media player since it was first shown off back in September, but those of you heading out to buy a shiny new iMac on Friday will certainly have a little something extra to play with this weekend...
If you enjoy using the Fantastical for Mac menu bar calendar app, developer Flexibits has just released a version for the iPhone as well. Available now from the App Store at 50 percent off for a limited time, Fantastical for iPhone promises to be the "fastest and friendliest calendar app," making short work of scheduling your hours and days (not to mention your weeks, months and years). The app's "DayTicker" view offers an efficient way to see your schedule at just a glance, and new events can be entered just by typing in plain language or even using dictation for iPhone models that support it. And hey, the app will even manage those pesky Facebook Events, too! Fantastical for iPhone is only $1.99 at launch, but will soon jump back to its normal price of $3.99, so get it while it's cheap, folks.
A couple of prominent photo app updates this week, as the Photoshop.com Blog announced the availability of Photoshop Touch 1.4, which now offers pressure-sensitive stylus support for the iPad as well as expanded device support, including the smaller display of the iPad mini. If that's not enough, mobile image editors will now get smoother brush strokes, new Lens Flare and Stamp Pattern effects, improved sharing and more. Meanwhile, 500px has made their iPhone app a universal build on Wednesday, allowing the free app to now work on the iPhone for the first time in an all-new experience designed from the ground up, including support for the iPhone 5's larger display. The iPad version even gets an improved look and feel as well, so hit the App Store and grab both updates today.
BGR has filed a couple of status updates on Research in Motion's BlackBerry platform this week, and the news isn't good. First up is Kantar Worldpanel data showing that RIM's share of the mobile market is slipping even outside of the U.S. (where it's already less than two percent), with the United Kingdom down from 19 to eight percent over the last year alone. More disturbing, the company's share in Spain tumbled from 24 percent to a mere three percent in only one year, also dropping from nine to three percent in Spain and from 16 to seven percent in France. Even more disturbing, RIM lost a patent dispute with Nokia on Wednesday which could effectively curb sales of its Wi-Fi-enabled handsets across the U.S., U.K. and Canada, assuming the BlackBerry maker doesn't get out its checkbook to make the problem go away first.
It's been a big week for iOS app updates, and that includes Google Drive, which finally became empowered with the ability to edit spreadsheets from the free universal app. A tap on a cell selects it, while a double-tap opens the cell, sliding up the keyboard so the app is ready to accept your changes. Google Drive for iOS will also show you other people's revisions in real time as they are made, just as if you were on the computer. Google has also made a few smaller tweaks to the Drive app such as better text formatting when copying and pasting into a document, so get those holiday shopping lists fired up, it's almost December, folks...
Microsoft's Windows Phone Blog has finally offered an update of sorts for owners of its Windows Phone 7 handsets wondering when they might finally see the promised update to Windows Phone 7.8. While the company isn't pinning a date on the calendar quite yet, the update is promised for "early 2013," and will even be rolled out with new, less-expensive handsets yet to come. Windows Phone 7.8 will include the new Start screen with resizable tiles as well as doubling the number of theme and accent colors to 20 and a few new lock screen features. Both Windows Phone 7.5 and 7.8 users will also be inflicted with the pain of Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Star Wars, assuming they're willing to part with the dough to buy them.
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