The 2012 Olympic Games begin in London, England on July 27th and run through August 12th, 2012.
Opening ceremony will start today at 9PM (London time) at the Stratford Olympic stadium, well-known director Danny Boyle is in charge of directing the show.
In order to follow all sport events with our beloved smartphones and tablets, here are the three official apps available for Android (being Samsung the London 2012 main sponsor), iOS, Blackberry and Windows Phone.
The Join In App is the official guide to all venues, places and stadiums as well a …

FontBook is the world’s most comprehensive reference on digital typography.
It documents the work of 118 renowned international type foundries, representing 1650 type designers, constituting 35,000 fonts from 8050 font families (status: April 2012).
The FontBook app presents this selection through 700,000 typeface samples which can be intuitively spread out, searched, layered, moved, scrolled and combined like a collection of maps.

Get FontBook for US$ 5.99 on iTunes.

As European Soccer 2012 Championship is approaching, get a grip on Blast Ball by Uncade LLC, a strange soccer game for iPhone and iPad where you’re supposed to score as much goals as possible with no care of what you’re throwin’ in!
You’ll be kicking not just regular soccer balls but a complete weird inventory of funny stuff, including bombs.
With a retro look and strange graphics, Blast Ball is definitely worth a try!
Blast Ball is available on iTunes Store by clicking here!

As reported by our friends at ThePhotoMaster.com, Quest for Land, is an extensive photo reportage about land issues in Cambodia by John Vink, a Magnum Photos photographer who has been working on these issues over the last 11 years.
And it’s an iPad app too!
The application developed by Robert Starkweather contains over 700 photographs, texts written by Robert Carmichael, links to reports by various NGO’s and slideshows with sound.

As Vink said in an interview:
I am interested in the digital aspects of photography since over 15 years, when I first started …

Not feeling like lining up at an Apple Store for the new iPad?
Walmart‘s 24-hour stores will start selling the least expensive version of it at 12:01 a.m. Friday, eight hours before Apple Stores open around the country.
One version, the 16GB model retailing for $499 will be available (in black or white) for the early purchasers at Walmart.
Ready? Set, go!!!
[Via MSNBC]

Check Apple‘s web site: you could win!
As of today, nearly 25 billion apps have been downloaded worldwide.
Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves.
So we want to say thanks.
Download the 25 billionth app, and you could win a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card.* Just visit the App Store and download your best app yet.
Check here for more info about the 25BN downloader prize!

Magazine publisher Future has released its first interactive book created with Apple’s iBooks Author tool.
Future says GarageBand for Beginners has been carefully designed m to make the most of the interactive features available on iBooks 2 and iBooks Author.
The book offers tutorials on using Apple’s GarageBand music-making app allows users to create their own music in a quick and easy way.
Ian Robson, Future’s Technology Publisher says: “Our consumers demand the richest possible media experience from our products and with GarageBand for Beginners we’ve once again delivered.
“The Apple iBooks 2 platform …

iPads in classroom?
Time reports about a recent study: iPad 2 helped score better tests results.
Any comment needed?
A new study shows that students who use iPads in the classroom score better in literacy tests than those who don’t. As previously reported, educators in Auburn, Maine began instructing 266 kindergarteners using the iPad 2 this fall, and those who used the tablet scored higher on literacy tests and were more enthused about learning, according to Apple blog TUAW.
We strongly advice you to read this too: Apple’s Textbooks: Undeniably Cool, But Will They …

Just shortly after we reviewed Life on Earth, we found some pretty outspoken article on The Guardian by Matt Britland, head of ICT at Kingston Grammar School.
Following the introduction of iBooks 2 and Apple’s interest into textbooks and iBooks Author, many observers are now arguing how much these tools will help/impact school education.
Matt’s pick?
Is this really the digital revolution that Apple would lead us to believe? Or is simply an update of CD-ROM textbooks on an expensive mobile device? Is this something students will buy into or am I looking …

Provided this is just a preview of the upcoming biology digital textbook, you’ll get a sample chapter “Introduction to Ecology” and a glimpse of (maybe) the best iBook around.
Sponsored by the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and Professor Wilson himself, this iBook is so well done you’ll want to learn everything about Biology!

Anyway, besides the topic and content, this 51-pages iBook is one of the very best examples of what can be done with iBooks as an educational tool.
It’s so full of widgets, not just high-quality video, but plenty of javascript …

EasySign, is a cool iPad/iPhone app that lets you sign documents using your mobile phone/touch device.
The app saves you a lot of time and money by solving the problem of dealing with hassles and frustrations of printing, scanning or faxing while signing documents.
Users download the App from the AppStore for free and import a document from an e-mail attachment, Dropbox or other cloud based file storage services.
Once the document is imported, you can sign and fill it right on your smartphone or tablet and then send the final document directly …

{EAV:475f0ad9367c78fa}Avid has launched a new video editing iPad app, which it hopes will give Apple’s iMovie a run for its money, and is Avid’s first prosumer video editing app for the iPad.
Avid Studio for the iPad enables you to quickly arrange your clips in the Storyboard, make precision edits using the Timeline, and add high-quality transitions, effects, and soundtracks to your movie footage.
The Avid Studio app combines a storyboard and timeline interface, where users can arrange clips in the storyboard, then use the timeline for precise cuts. It also offers …

Karaoke comes to the iPad – so you can sing, record, share and have fun – all with the magical touch of your iPad!
With your iPad as your karaoke stage and studio, you can sound like a pro, record your stellar performances, and share your favorites with one touch!
Soulo’s innovative features get you inside the song like never before.
SING with built-in pitch enhancement so you’re always in key.
Turn the lead vocals up if you want to hear them or down if you’re ready to take the …

Are you Flickr-addicted?
Are you a pro-am photographer?
Meet Indicommons for iPhone and iPad!
The Indicommons application provides a new way to access the wealth of historical imagery and information from around the world that is found in the Commons. No matter where you are, you can browse through the various institutions’ collections, or search the Commons for items of interest. If you have a Flickr account, you can also help enrich the Commons by adding tags and comments to the various Commons items directly from the application.
Where exactly does Commons come from?
Here’s …

According to an IBM report, iPhone, iPad rose up to 13 percent of all online purchases on Christmas.
More figures show that on December 26, online sales rose by 27.8 percent compared with 2010.
Eyeing online sales across 500 retailers on December 25 and 26, IBM’s latest holiday benchmark report found a surge in cybershopping from mobile devices.
A full 16 percent of all online traffic recorded by IBM came from mobile devices, a surge of 109 percent from last year.
The great – and strange news come from the fact that purchases …

Blogger TechMoan has gone a bit further with Apple fanatism by recycling a Mac Classic case (the Mac was actually defunct) a putting together one of the coolest iPad docking station, charging and speaker…

By the way, Mac Plus case went for some 9 bucks on eBay….
[Via TechMoan and Hirac]

In July we wrote about Flipboard for iPad and this social media aggregator has become huge since then.
Today, Flipboard becomes available for iPhone and with a stable release too!
A new personalized-reading app for the iPhone is being launched by Flipboard, the design-centric company that led the customized-news charge with its app for iPad.
News can be rapidly browsed with a thumb flick from the hand holding the iPhone, like a digital Rolodex.
As you may expect, signing up a (free) account on Flipboard bring the same content, RSS-feeds and windows arrangements and …

Sting’s app: celebrating 25 years of solo career, Steve Jobs and… a “message in an iPad”?

Here we are, shortly after the iPad Skype app, Facebook has finally launched its official iPad app, after (literally) months of speculations and leaks.
Facebook for iPad, now available in the iOS App Store (update: it’s still rolling out), looks much like the version that leaked in July. The app is designed primarily as a consumption experience, which is why the app emphasizes photos. Photos take up the entire screen, and users can pinch to zoom in on them. Navigating through a photo album is done simply by swiping left or …

When it was released, a long time ago, Skype for iPhone has turned on high expectations around a specifically-designed version for iPad which was announced and never released for a loooong time.
Now the wait is over! iPad owner can now download the very iPad-only Skype version on iTunes App Store!
Was it worth the wait? Let’s see.
Skype for iPad leverages the huge screen estate, enabling a completely different communication experience with the world-leading VoIP software, be it with video-calling features or in chat mode.
Some features have been customized for the …