Rovio has updated its Angry Birds Space game with a 'Pig Dipper' update that brings the game's first aquatic worlds with new physics, as well as new power ups as well. Angry Birds Space was originally released last March, was the bestselling paid app of 2012, and has remained among the top paid apps ever since.

SPLASH! The Angry Birds have landed in the weirdest galaxy yet! All the planets are filled with water, strange aquatic life and worst of all -- Bad Piggies in boats! Use the unique physics of these water planets to set up some fun trick shots! Also, check out the brand-new power-ups: Flock of Birds, Space Egg, and Pig Puffer! HINT: Make sure to check how Ice Bird and Pig Puffer react to water!

Angry Birds Space is available for the Mac, iPhone and iPad from the App Store, though it appears the Pig Dipper update has not gone live on the Mac App Store yet. [Direct Link: Mac/iPhone/iPad]

An enormous iPhone has been unveiled in St. Petersburg, Russia, as a tribute to former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who passed away in October 2011 from pancreatic cancer.

The six-foot-tall sculpture, which resembles a black iPhone 4, was brought to life by designer Gleb Tarasov, according to The Daily Mail. Though the phone is not equipped with a touch screen, it does display a photo and video slideshow of Jobs' life, including important events and well-known speeches.

Located in the courtyard of the St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics, and Optics, the giant iPhone also features a QR code that links to a memorial website.


It is the product of a competition that was held by the Progress IT fund last year, which held a contest to decide who would design the monument. Tarasov, who titled his original proposal "Sunny QR Code," was chosen from more than 200 entrants as the winner, although the final result is a substantial departure from his original submission based around a dynamic QR code readable only in the mid-day sun.

The memorial was officially unveiled yesterday, marking the 12th anniversary of iTunes and the 6th year since the iPhone was originally revealed by Jobs at MacWorld 2007.

Original link:   Phil Schiller Says Apple Wouldn’t Sacrifice Quality for Market Share in a Cheaper iPhone

Apple's 27-inch iMac continues to be in short supply, with Apple quoting 3-4 week shipping estimates for new online orders, compared to shorter but still substantial 7-10 day estimates for the smaller 21.5-inch models. Even before launch, the new iMac was projected to be in short supply into 2013, due in large part to issues with Apple's new display assembly process that includes laminating the display directly to the machine's cover glass.


Digitimes now reports that the display lamination issue is still a problem for Apple supplier LG Display, with the larger 27-inch panels seeing lower yields than the 21.5 inch displays.

LG Display has reportedly been facing full lamination issues while producing the panels, slowing down shipments of the 27-inch device to 100,000 units a month, added the sources.

LG Display, however, has secured strong yields for Apple's new 21.5-inch model, which currently has reached monthly shipments of 300,000-400,000 units, noted the sources.

The report does claim, however, that LG is moving toward better yields of the larger displays, with greater availability set to come next month. The improved yields should reduce what appears to be the main bottleneck in iMac production, thus leading to greater availability and shorter shipping estimates for new orders.

Apple's redesigned iMac is considerably thinner than its predecessor and contains 40% less volume, changes that have been enabled by a number of technological advancements such as the lamination to create thinner and more vibrant displays and the use of advanced welding techniques. Those advancements have not come without challenges, however, as seen with the displays holding back production on the larger iMac models.

As part of an extensive look at HP and whether CEO Meg Whitman will be able to turn the legendary computer company around, Bloomberg Businessweek shares an anecdote revealing how Steve Jobs reached out to ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd in 2010 both to provide support and to offer assistance with repairing Hurd's relationship with HP in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the company from entering a tailspin.

Hurd's ouster at HP has been compared to Steve Jobs' departure from Apple in 1985, although Hurd was forced out over claims of sexual harassment and improper expense reports.

Three days after he’d resigned as CEO under pressure from the company’s board of directors, Hurd received an e-mail from Steve Jobs. The Apple founder wanted to know if Hurd needed someone to talk to. [...]

Hurd met Jobs at his home in Palo Alto, according to people who know both men but did not wish to be identified, compromising a personal confidence. The pair spent more than two hours together, Jobs taking Hurd on his customary walk around the tree-lined neighborhood. At numerous points during their conversation, Jobs pleaded with Hurd to do whatever it took to set things right with the board so that Hurd could return. Jobs even offered to write a letter to HP’s directors and to call them up one by one.

Jobs argued that a strong HP was vital to a healthy Silicon Valley, and Jobs was worried that the company would falter following the departure of Hurd. Jobs was unsuccessful in his efforts, however, and although he would only live for another year, he did witness the fall of HP under outsider Léo Apotheker.

Jobs had quietly served as a mentor to a number of other tech industry figures, such as Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Salesforce founder Marc Benioff. Jobs also served as mentor to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, offering advice on a broad array of topics.

Seeking to enhance its profile among music buyers, Amazon today announced the launch of AutoRip, a new service that offers customers who purchase physical CDs through Amazon free digital copies of their purchases through Amazon Cloud Player. The service is also retroactive, meaning that customers who bought any of the thousands of eligible CDs through Amazon since 1998 will automatically find digital versions of their past purchases in Cloud Player.

When customers purchase AutoRip CDs, the MP3 versions are automatically added to their Cloud Player libraries, where they are available, free of charge, for immediate playback or download – no more waiting for the CD to arrive. Additionally, customers who have purchased AutoRip CDs at any time since Amazon first opened its Music Store in 1998 will find MP3 versions of those albums in their Cloud Player libraries – also automatically and for free. More than 50,000 albums, including titles from every major record label, are available for AutoRip, and more titles are added all the time – customers can just look for the AutoRip logo.

AutoRip tracks are encoded as 256 Kbps MP3 files and are playable on a wide variety of devices including the iPhone and iPod touch, and can also be accessed through any web browser. AutoRip tracks do not count toward users' storage limits for the Cloud Player service.


Amazon has been working for years to eat into Apple's dominant share of the digital music market, offering discounted prices and matching or exceeding Apple's features such as iTunes Match with its own offerings. With the new AutoRip service, Amazon clearly hopes to attract many longtime customers who have purchased physical CDs from the company by offering free digital versions to introduce them to Cloud Player.

As speculated following his arrival in China earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook has met with representatives of China Mobile, the world's largest carrier. Reuters notes that the two sides discussed "cooperation", but no additional information on the status of long-running negotiations over the iPhone have been revealed.

"In the morning, Apple's CEO Tim Cook visited China Mobile's headquarters. China Mobile's Chairman Xi Guohua and Tim Cook discussed matters of cooperation," said Li Jun, a China Mobile spokesman, in an emailed statement. [...]

Talks between Apple and China Mobile have been going on for years and are stuck on revenue sharing terms, analysts said, so it is tough to say if this meeting would break new ground.

Tim Cook meeting with China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei earlier this week (Source: MIIT)
Cook also sat down with Sina Technology for an exclusive interview [Google translation] in which he touched on a number of topics. Notably, Cook shared that although this was his second visit to China as CEO of Apple, he has visited China numerous times since 1996 and he has observed tremendous changes over that time.

Cook also highlighted Apple's efforts to raise its profile in China, reiterating plans to grow its retail presence from the current 11 stores in Greater China to at least 25 locations. Apple is also working to speed up the approval process for Apple products in China, moves which would allow product launches in China to occur closer to the first waves that generally include the United States and perhaps 5-10 other countries.

As he has in several other settings, Cook skirted discussion of Apple's plans for the television market, noting that he uses and loves the current Apple TV set-top box but that the market does not yet offer similar potential to the smartphone market. As he usually does when confronted with questions about television, Cook shared only that Apple remains very interested in the market and acknowledged that he can not discuss any future plans for the company.

As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple today revamped its Thunderbolt cable lineup, dropping the price of the existing 2-meter cable from $49 to $39 and adding a new 0.5-meter cable priced at $29.

Thunderbolt cables remain relatively expensive due to the electronics included inside the cables to manage the multiple protocols supported by the standard. The complexity and expense has both slowed deployment of Thunderbolt peripherals and limited support mostly to high-end devices capable of absorbing the high cost premium.

Thunderbolt cables have so far been limited to traditional copper cabling, but vendors are just beginning production on optical cables for the standard. The optical cables will allow for much longer cable lengths, but will not be able to provide power to peripherals as copper cables can.

Water-resistant nanocoating has been around for some time now, but Santa Ana-based company Liquipel has debuted a more effective version, Liquipel 2.0, which it says is up to 100 times more effective than the watersafe nanocoating it first introduced at CES 2012.

Liquipel's product is designed to protect electronic devices from water damage, adding a vapor-applied water resistant coating that does not compromise the performance of the device.


According to Liquipel's Managing Director Sam Winkler, who spoke to Engadget, a device that is treated with the new version of Liquipel is able to achieve a water resistance rating of IPX7, which means the device can be submerged in a meter of water for 30 minutes.

Though Liquipel did not previously offer a warranty for treated electronics and some users had experienced issues with devices treated with original Liquipel formula not surviving liquid exposure, the company announced its Liquipel Performance Guarantee at CES. The new warranty, which currently covers only U.S. customers but should be extended to other countries in the future, offers protection from damage due to accidental liquid exposure on Liquipel-treated devices.

The coverage excludes intentional submerging of devices in liquid. However, everyday life events that can cause liquid damage will be covered, such as: rain, splashing, sweat, dropping in the sink or toilet and spilled drinks.

Liquipel's nanocoating operation has also gone portable with its new "Liquipods," 4x4 foot boxes that can be leased by shops who want to offer the Liquipel treatment.

TechCrunch reports that Liquipel is also opening its own retail locations, beginning with an inaugural store at the West Edmonton Mall in Canada this February.


Liquipel currently offers an online service, where customers can ship devices to be professionally coated by Liquipel itself, with prices starting at $59.