Happy Friday the 13th! Or, maybe not, depending on what kind of luck you've been having so far today. We've got quite a mixed bag of tech news to sort through today, so take a break from watching those Jason Voorhees movies (what -- you don't do that on Friday the 13th?) and step right up as we present the latest and greatest for this Friday, April 13, 2012.
TouchArcade Shows Off Upcoming iOS App
MacRumors sister site TouchArcade has been teasing a forthcoming app, and today they've posted a massive preview revealing what you can expect when it hits App Stores around the world (pending approval, of course). The free TouchArcade app is similar to the existing AppShopper app, but obviously is more game-centric with a darker look. "There's a whole bunch of behind the scenes wizardry taking place to compute this list, utilizing tons of different data points to create a surprisingly accurate display of what the hottest games at the time are," the website reveals. "The cool thing about this is that the list is constantly being updated. If you want to know what the most popular games amongst our community are at this exact moment, look no further than the hot games list." If you're a die-hard iOS gamer, you owe it to yourself to hit the link and check it out for yourself.
Apple Will Have to Pay Up for iCloud in Germany
Germany's legal system has been hit or miss for Apple, but Friday the 13th is living up to its unlucky reputation for Cupertino. According to DowJones Newswires, Motorola Mobility has won a victory in a German regional court over patents relating to push email used for iCloud and MobileMe. As a result, Apple will be forced to fork over an unspecified amount of damages in order to get those services working again for German users. And the news could get even worse. "The judge adjourned a decision on mobile communication standards, which Motorola Mobility regards as standard-essential," the report adds. "He didn't say when the court will rule on this patent case."
How Many Boxee Boxes Would Be Considered a Hit?
The folks at Boxee hit Twitter yesterday to spit out a fun fact regarding how many folks are enjoying their product. As it turns out, an impressive two million in total -- but the tweet also reveals a somewhat less impressive number of 200,000 which are using the Boxee Box hardware released in tandem with D-Link. So GigaOM posed the question: Is that all the hardware the company has sold? Partner D-Link recently announced a new $50 streaming box called MovieNite which will sell exclusively at Walmart, which has the potential of nabbing some prospective Boxee Box owners. D-Link seems to disagree, but one thing's for certain: Set-top boxes are a hard sell with consumers. There are less an a million Google TV devices and reigning champ Roku claims to have sold 2.5 million over three years. Guess we know why Apple keeps calling the Apple TV a "hobby"…
French Designer Phillipe Starck's "Revolutionary" Project for Apple
AllThingsD is reporting on some curious news from French designer Phillipe Starck, who made news today with claims that he's working on a "fairly, if not very, revolutionary" project for Apple "that will be out in eight months." Many jumped to the obvious conclusion that he was referring to the mythical Apple HDTV we don't hear much about these days, until common sense prevailed and folks remembered that Starck was commissioned by the late Steve Jobs to build him a yacht. So what's the real story? Starck won't say, but Apple went on the record making it clear that the French designer is not working on any new product for the company. Want to know the real story? Guess you'll have to wait eight months to find out.
Unofficial Spotify for iPad App in the Works
We're big fans of Spotify and they're already getting our $9.99 per month for the Premium package, but with each passing day we yearn for an iPad app that never seems to arrive. Apparently, we're not alone: According to AppAdvice, a developer named Max Petriv out of New York intends to beat Spotify at their own game with an unofficial iPad app. ""I've started the project last week," Petriv reveals. "It all began when I realized how much I love Spotify, and how there is no official app. I didn't want to create something that looked like their regular app either. The idea here is to make it more fun to explore music and find something you didn't even know you liked." Petriv is documenting the app's creation on his Twitter account @talkaboutdesign, and apparently Spotify's PR team dropped him a line inquiring if he was actually working on an official app. Of course, Engadget is reporting that Spotify is holding a press briefing next Wednesday, April 18 in New York City, so maybe the company will beat Petriv to the punch instead.
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(Image courtesy of AppAdvice)
