Show us your Pwned Face and win a Limited Edition Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 console!

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Announcements, Cell Phones, Video Games

We love the holidays. Why? Because it puts us in a giving mood, and we know how much you guys like receiving from us. That’s why we’ve teamed up with our friends at shoot it! to bring you this awesome promotion. If you’re a gamer, you probably know that Microsoft is set to release a limited edition Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 console. It hits stores on November 10th, and we’ve pre-ordered one that we’re giving away to one of you. In case you’re unfamiliar with the console, here’s what’s in the box:

• Limited edition Xbox 360 Console with exclusive design
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Standard Edition.
• 250GB HD
• 2 black wireless controllers
• 1 black Xbox 360 wired headset
• 1 Ethernet cable
• 1 Standard Xbox 360 Composite A/V cable

Yeah, did you see that? A 250GB hard drive. That is more than twice the size of any other Xbox 360 hard drive that you’ll find. This is a serious piece of kit! So, how do you win? Simple. We want to see your “pwned face.” This is where shoot it! comes in. We want you to take a pictures of the face you make when you just pwned a n00b straight out of existence - but we also wanna see the sad pwned face you make when you get straight-up schooled by an 6-year old Halo prodigy. Entertain us, make us laugh, and strike fear into our hearts. We’ve got a few ways that you can enter the contest:

1. If you don’t have the shoot it! app: You can register for the shoot it! app and they’ll email you a link to download the app for either your BlackBerry 8900, Bold, Tour, or iPhone. They’ll also add 3 FREE postcard credits to your account. All you need to do is snap your photos and send them off using shoot it! to the Gear Live mailing address listed below.
2. If you already have the shoot it! app on your phone: Enter the promo code “gearlive” to receive the 3 FREE postcard credits. All you need to do is snap your photos and send them off using shoot it! to the Gear Live mailing address listed below.
3. If you don’t have any of the shoot it! compatible phones: Take a photos of your pwned face, send them to the Gear Live mailing address listed below.
4. On Twitter, send the following message:
   “Hey @gearlive - I’m sending you my #pwnedface with @shootitmobile. That Xbox 360 is mine! http://bit.ly/pwnedface”
   (Click here to tweet this now)

You should be following the Gear Live Twitter account. Be sure you put your email address and Twitter handle that you used to enter in the message area so that when we get your shoot it! postcard, we can contact you if you win! We will be picking a winner on Monday, November 30th. You can enter as many times as you like, so if you wanna send us fifty different shoot it! images, go for it. The more, the merrier. Here’s the address:

Gear Live
PMB 443
914 164th St SE Ste B12
Mill Creek, WA 98012

Of course, there are always rules to keep things legal. In this case, you’ve gotta be 16 years old or older as of November 1, 2009 to qualify, and you’ve gotta be a US resident. Good luck to all!

Read More | Gear Live shoot it! Xbox 360 giveaway

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Ping! app updated to 1.0.1, fixes bugs

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, App Updates, $0.99

Ping!, the iPhone-to-iPhone messaging app, has just been updated to version 1.0.1, and with the update comes a bunch of bug fixes. Here’s a little of what’s changed:

• You can now unregister your Ping! ID
• Landscape keyboard fixed so you can now send updates from that view
• Duplicate messages will no longer be received
• Notification settings icon fixed
• There’s now an in-app invitation email

Ping! certainly isn’t the prettiest app in the world, but it is definitely functional, and allows free iPhone-to-iPhone messaging without having to use SMS, and it’s way faster. You can pick up Ping! for $0.99.

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Tweetie 2 makes long-awaited debut

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, App Updates, New Apps, Reviews, $2.99

Tweetie 2 has just launched and is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch, and the popular Twitter app brings with it many, many improvements and feature additions. Some of the more notable additions include full app persistence, which means that if you leave the app for any reason and come back to it, Tweetie 2 will remember exactly where you were. There’s also a nice offline mode, that lets you read, favorite, and even write drafts of tweets. Once you connect to the Internet again, everything gets synced up.

Many users have been waiting for video support and push notifications to come to Tweetie as well, and Tweetie 2 delivers on both fronts, but we feel both are lacking. With video support, we’d love to see Posterous added as a hosting service, as opposed to just yFrog and TwitVid. As is pertains to push notifications, Tweetie 2 gives it to you, but only on a per-user basis. So you have to go into each user that you want to receive notifications from, and enable them in a menu that is buried a couple of levels deep. We’d love an option to get all mentions and direct messages pushed to the phone from Tweetie 2, rather than having to rely on another Twitter app that can do it (like SimplyTweet) or an app dedicated to pushing content (like Boxcar.)

Still, don’t let those two issues deter you. We’ve been playing with it for a while, and can say without hesitation that Tweetie 2 is now our iPhone Twitter application of choice. It is fast, elegant, and a great deal at $2.99. You can buy Tweetie in the App Store now, we’ve got a full feature list for you after the jump. Oh, and feel free to follow Gear Live and App.tapper on Twitter!

Click to continue reading Tweetie 2 makes long-awaited debut

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Best Camera iPhone app and community

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Photography, Social Networking, New Apps, Videos, $2.99

If you’ve been looking for an iPhone app that can replace the default camera app for taking photos, Best Camera just may be what you’ve been looking for. Developed by Seattle photographer Chase Jarvis, Best Camera provides a full-featured camera control app, fantastic photo editing (think of it as an iPhone version of Photoshop,) and a great online community that lives both online and in the app, where you can see great photos that have been taken by other Best Camera users.

The app lets you fade, crop, lighten, darken, and add a ton of effects to photos you take. You can then share those photos to social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and the Best Camera community.

As part of the launch, and to build up the Best Camera community, there will be a photo contest where the winner receives an iPhone 3GS. Hit the video above to get a look at the idea behind the app, and how it works. It costs just $2.99, and you can download Best Camera now on the App Store.

Read More | Best Camera

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Ping! brings iPhone-to-iPhone messaging to the App Store

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, New Apps, Reviews, Free Apps

We were just alerted to a new iPhone and iPod touch app called Ping!, which aims to provide free iPhone-to-iPhone (and iPod touch) messaging to users of those devices. We tried it, and thought it was worthy enough to give a shout out to.

Basically, once you download the free Ping! application, you set up a username, and you are set. You can invite others from within the app over email, letting them know your username, and also set up whether you want push notifications or not. Once you start a conversation, it’s very similar to SMS…except it’s free, and instant. You get the speed of an IM conversation with the persistence of SMS, all at no extra cost. Even better, it works internationally. So you can send and receive messages with people in other countries, and again, at no extra cost.

Go ahead and give Ping! a try, we think you’ll like it.

Read More | Ping! in App Store

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Bleeding Edge TV 316: Yelp Monocle Hidden Feature Brings Augmented Reality to iPhone

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Apple, Cell Phones, Features, GPS, Handhelds, Podcasts, Videocasts, Videos

Stream this video to your iPhone

My pal Robert Scoble announced that the Yelp iPhone and iPod touch app that was recently updated included a hidden Augmented Reality feature. Obviously, as soon as we saw, we had to give it a shot, and we figured we’d do it on video. Augmented Reality apps use the camera on the iPhone, along with overlaid information, to present location data while looking at the “real world” - it’s very cool, and you can expect a bunch more of these types of apps to make an appearance on the App Store very shortly upon the release of iPhone OS 3.1.

In this demo, we show you how to unlock the Monocle mode in the Yelp app, and also give you a look at what exactly it does. For now, our early opinion is that it’s a cool idea…it just needs to be refined a bit to be truly useful.

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Gifters app review

Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Lifestyle, Reviews, $1.99

Gifters, currently available for $1.99, lets you create and manage gift lists. If you’re patient and comfortable with getting friends and family on-board, this may be for you. To some though, the app may be just a little too cumbersome.

After creating an account - where you’re forced to input your physical address, for some odd reason - you’re guided through a tutorial by means of several notification windows. Following that, you’re free to create and share lists. The app has no gift database though, so when creating lists you have to fill in several information fields all on your own.

Click to continue reading Gifters app review

Read More | Gifters

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Spotify streaming music app coming to iPhone

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Music, App Store News, New Apps

Hey, streaming subscription music fans, it looks like Spotify has finally been approved by Apple, and it will be appearing in the App Store shortly. You may not realize how big a deal this is at first glance, but trust me, this is huge. Spotify is a service that gives you all-you-can-eat access to music for a set fee each month. The app appearing on the iPhone and iPod touch means that you can use another store besides iTunes to listen to, and download, music. Yes, Spotify even lets you listen to downloaded tracks if you are offline. This is a game-changer, and we look forward to getting our hands on Spotify once it is released!

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Push Gmail coming soon with GPush iPhone app

Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Productivity, New Apps, $0.99, $1.99

While you can’t have true Push Gmail on the iPhone [Editors Note: You can, if you set up Gmail as an Exchange account, but you don’t get Push Notifications this way], an app arriving very soon on the App Store will come close to replicating the true experience.

Currently, the iPhone’s Mail App pings Gmail periodically, or when you hit refresh, to see if you have any new messages. Push e-mail would be virtually instantaneous - as push notification on the phone is.

GPush is an app that will shoot off push notifications whenever you get new e-mail. You’ll then be able to go into your phone’s Mail App and see your new e-mail as the Inbox refreshes.

Click to continue reading Push Gmail coming soon with GPush iPhone app

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Shoot It! photo app now available in App Store

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Photography, Social Networking, New Apps, Reviews, $0.99

We’ve been beta testing the Shoot It! app for the past couple of months, and we are excited to let you guys know that it is now available for purchase in the App Store for $0.99. Why the excitement? Well, Shoot It! is one of the apps we use very regularly, and it’s one of our favorite apps that we’ve ever used on the iPhone. So, What is Shoot It?

Shoot It! allows you to send high quality postcards to anyone in your iPhone or iPod touch Address Book, using images in your Camera Roll, or an image that you take from within the app using the iPhone camera. You can send a postcard to as many people as you like, and you also fill in a message that would be printed on the back of the photo. The end result is, as we said, a high quality 4x6 glossy postcard that has the image of your choice on the front, and your message on the back. Since you can send the message to any number of contacts, you end up with the ability to send one message to, say, twenty people, in just a minute or two.

Click to continue reading Shoot It! photo app now available in App Store

Read More | Shoot It!

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